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Can you play your region-locked games if you relocate to another country?

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Yirg

Steam has a page about relocation and travelling between countries, but doesn't cover the aspect of actually playing the games when abroad. It's all about buying games...

Has anyone relocated from a region-locked country to another Steam region and can share their experience?

BTW, I don't have any region locked games in my library and don't plan to relocate. Just curious about this :-)

O.GA

9 years ago

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12 Comments
PsyKo

If you bought region-locked gifts (sometimes I do that myself, buy game as gift, so I won't put it into library and forget I have it), then you're screwed.
If you buy straight-to-library, then beside few games that check IP you're good to go.

At least for now, until GabeN decide to kill that trading method...

9 years ago
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Yirg

I'm in a ROW region, so luckily no such issues.

What makes a game in your inventory more "rememberable" than one in your library? BTW, in case you missed it, this tool is really useful.

9 years ago
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PsyKo

I probably check my inventory more often than library :P

It's easier to spot some game and get that itch in inventory than in library.

9 years ago
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MaxThunder

I think you may be able to circumvent (hope I spelled that right) that by creating another account and sharing the games to that one through family share. I have a buddy in USA that can play my region restricted games, and I'm from latin America.

9 years ago
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Yirg

Isn't Steam family sharing similar (in terms of technology) to Remote Desktop? And if so, doesn't it mean that such sharing would result in very laggy performance when done between different households (and in your case, different countries)?

9 years ago
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MonoTheKing

No, there is nothing relate with Remote Desktop, the second user still need to download the game to HDD and run as normal.
Also have a bump, I have a same question like you Yirg, some say we can't play those game outside the locked-region, some say can, some say need to write something to Steam prove that we travel/move to new region :/ but I never met anyone experienced that.

9 years ago*
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AlexFreez

Mostly games are activate-locked, means that you can only activate it in the specified countries but you're able to play it outside of the restricted countries. Some games also have run-lock applied to them which is the same as activation lock + you have to be located in one of those countries you bought the game from to actually play it. Better check Steam DB for info on interested game.

PS: this one for example has both restrictions active: https://steamdb.info/sub/13944/info/ ("Information" tab).

9 years ago*
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CCL666

This. I travel a lot and sometimes I have to use a VPN for the latter category, but that's rare and (at least in my experience) pretty much limited to games that cannot be activated in Japan and Korea.

9 years ago
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Yirg

This is good to know and explains why there are hardly any complaints about accessing Steam library when travelling.

And to think I was almost ready to switch to GOG... ...not really ;-)

9 years ago
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Sooth

And to think I was almost ready to switch to GOG... ...not really ;-)
Not ready to upgrade yet? :P

9 years ago
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Yirg

GOG is fine. All they need to do to win my wallet is this :-)

9 years ago
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Sooth

What you're asking- beyond what they're already doing with Galaxy- is likely going to end up being either mechanically or legally challenging. On the flip side, at one point I'm fairly sure I saw three different third-party cross-platform library programs being worked on at one point, though heck if I can find an active site for any of them, now.
Project Ascension at least, may still be being worked on, so that may be something to keep tabs on.

In the end, if we get the functionality you're asking for, it's going to be from a third-party program. :)

9 years ago
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