If a game is not region lock now. But lets say in 2 months time it will be. Does this region lock apply to the game added to my library ? Making it unplayable. Or only to inventory gifts ?

Thanks

9 years ago*

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I´m not even sure if they are allowed to add region lock afterwards to a already purchased product no matter if it´s bound to your account or in your inventory. Wouldn´t that change the whole premise of the trade ?

9 years ago
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they can and there's been many many examples for it. Some recent ones? south Park, Rome II Total War, COD: Ghosts, Valiant Hearts, Witcher 3 and so on and on.

9 years ago
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Wow thats surprising. Well I´m not a lawyer but I´d like to see Valve defend that case against my countrys law system. TOS only apply where they don´t collide with regional law.

On the other hand the european court of law has decided years ago that people have the right to resell even used digital games and Valve has still managed to not comply so I fear you are right.

9 years ago
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It is about Witcher 3! That is not region locked i believe ?

9 years ago
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Witcher 3 got region locked for couple of hours (maybe a day or two, I did not follow it on a hourly basis) but then it got lifted. Still noono know if it got lifted because it was an error or does they plan to region lock it just before/after release and did so now by accident.

I'd be cautoius tho - because before W3 in russia had same subID as in EU/US, but they changed it. Maybe they changed it for no reason at all, but maybe because giving it different item ID enable locking. Especially considering that Witcher 2 Russian copies has full-scale region lock (you need to be on teritory of CIS countries or use VPN to even launch RU copy).

9 years ago
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Interesting, thanks for the info.

Would you happen to know if it gift item would have a RU tag on it ? Or you know of a way the item ID from someones inventory. Really worried now since i won't use a VPN on steam :P

9 years ago
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I do know that W3 gift items does not have (RU) on it's gift copies (or at least it didn't have it a while ago). But I have no idea if it is possible and if so how to check item ID out from the inventory. I'm not a trader - sorry ;p And if I ocassionally trade I only trade for items that have same subID cross region ;) So sorry - can't help you here - you'll have to wait for response from some more experienced trader ;p

9 years ago
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Thanks anyway! They really should add that RU tag on the gift. So everyone knows what they are getting into... You would think they will make some restriction since there is a RU sub id for it. Then again some games with a RU tag are perfectly playable outside that region and in english. Like this one, i have that. I never considered that games could change their region lock limitation at any point. I always thought this was a 1 time deal, you pick your limitations and you stick with it... apparently not the case. Seems to be a hot topic on the Witcher 3 forums tho... thats why i asked it here :) But i think i am just going to get in my own region... or risk wasting 13 euro aaarrgh... well i really hate the idea that they can lock me out whenever they feel like it. But i doubt they would do that it being on GOG and all... surely they'll understand people will pirate it dayone.. this shouldn't be a big deal then IDK

9 years ago
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The different SubIDs for different regions thing is slowly becoming the thing of the past - Valve introduced a new type of region lock several months ago, and the majority of new games use that one instead of the "old" one. As a result, games are less likely to have a visible RU tag. So you should always check SteamDB for locks instead of relying on tags.

Things become even more complicated because of games being locked retroactively quite often. If a preorder gets locked upon release, all its inventory copies become locked, it will be impossible to activate them outside of the region of purchase. However, if the publisher does not add the "play lock" (onlyallowrunincountries on SteamDB), already activated copies will remain playable.

Now, Witcher 3. Its steam page was modified several times, so whether or not you should be worried depends on when and where it was purchased. It's possible to check the exact SubID of the game's inventory copy - see if there's a risk of it getting a "play lock". If there's a risk, better trade it to someone in the region where it was purchased. If there's little risk, better activate it in case they apply a retroactive "activation lock" soon.

9 years ago
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"it's possible to check the exact SubID of the game's inventory copy" How ?
Thanks for all the explaining :)

9 years ago
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The Witcher 3... when I received the gift of gift steam was not labeled "RU" I went to see what version it was and guess what? "RU" version and the gift was not there, it is a mistake to Steam and maybe it'll play because of Steam ... I had activated July 31.

9 years ago
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I activated last week. Its tagged as RU.
I dont think they gonna lock activated copies but I wouldnt keep it in my inventory.

9 years ago
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There's a plugin that I use called Steam Web Tools that adds this functionality. It's in Russian only, though. Maybe there are alternatives in English, I'm not sure about that. If you still have the inventory copy, add me on Steam, I'll check it for you.

9 years ago
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depends on a game and region lock. It can be locked for trading and sending to other regions or for activating - this way if you have it in your library you're fine. But it may also get a lock for playing - then it becomes unplayable unless you use VPN each time to play it (which is against TOS and may get you banned).

9 years ago
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nice info

9 years ago
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I knew they could go in a lock games for activation later, therefore potentially restricting one from activating a copy held in inventory (i.e. Valiant Hearts), but I had no idea they could lock a game already activated to an account??

9 years ago
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they can. Rome II and COD:Ghost are recent examples.

9 years ago
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Pretty sure they can't lock it if you have already activated the game. But if it isn't activated yet, they can retroactively lock the gift.

9 years ago
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It depends on the "type" of lock they apply. There is the "play lock", called "onlyallowrunincountries" on SteamDB, which prevents you from launching the game in your library if you are not in Russia/CIS.

9 years ago
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But that only happened with very few games, which caused a shitstorm for the developer.
I personally dont think it will happen.

9 years ago
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Yeah, it's rare now, but it happened before. So there's a small chance it might happen again.

9 years ago
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how do you know if the game is region lock before buying it?

9 years ago
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check it first on steamdb

9 years ago
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I don't understand it but clicky

9 years ago
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example - look for AllowPurchaseFromRestrictedCountries, PurchaseRestrictedCountries and AllowCrossRegionTradingAndGifting. Names are pretty much self-explanatory I believe ;p

9 years ago
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