Steam activations and region locking?

I'm going to India in late December on vacation and am planning on buying some games there. Last year when I went, I had bought Grand Theft Auto 4 for $10. I read the box and when it said it had to be activated in India, I didn't buy anymore games despite them having Left 4 Dead for $20 and other deals. Though when I came back to the U.S, it activated just fine. But I do hear you are not as lucky with Steam games.

I'm anticipating buying games like Left 4 Dead 2 for $20 there. I know that Steam has region locks and people have complained of buying retail games in India, Thailand, etc. and coming to the U.S and finding they don't work.

Now, would it be alright if I activate the games first in India and then will they work back in the U.S?

 

It should work.

Try using an Indian Steam account if possible.

Ive used steam accounts w/ games activated from different countries.

 

It would be inconvenient to create a whole new Steam account. I wouldn't be able to log-in to my American account and register/activate the Indian Steam game in India and have it work back in the U.S or anywhere else?

I'm sure there are those that go traveling abroad with their laptop and play their Steam games which they bought back home.

I understand if I buy the game from India and activate it in the U.S, it won't work. But I hope I can activate it in India and then play it anywhere.

So, you have had to create several accounts to play games from different regions? Did you ever try activating all these international games on just one account?

 

I didnt create the accounts, i used my friends overseas accounts to play the games.

I am pretty sure you just need to activate it in the same region then you can play anywhere else in the world.

Try the Steam online support, they are usually helpful.

 

Just activate it in India first. It'll work fine anywhere else after that.

Steam games with region restrictions can be played anywhere, but they need to be activated in that particular region first. It's possible to trick Steam into thinking that you're in India when you're really trying to activate it in the US, but it requires quite a bit of messing around first.

I'm in Singapore, but my Orange Box which was bought in Thailand in 2007 still runs.

 

Thanks Cathy. So when you bought The Orange Box in Thailand, you activated it there and it runs just fine back home in Singapore? You also didn't create a new account, but used your original account?

 

it does not pervade im afraid, ive brought 4 games from India and ive just moved back home to New Zealand L4D doesnt work and nor did Dawn of War 2 when i tried to install from disc it said............



i havent tried empire total war yet, but be warned if you get a message like the one i did you can not play the game out of that region, i contacted steam about this and was told to take the game back for a refund....hehe heck of a long way to go for a $10 game.

good luck

*NOTE* the game had been activated in India and was working 100% when i tried to play it in NZ it worked the first time then crashed and said updating then i got the message and the game appeared as uninstalled.

 

Weird because ive used someones US L4D account and it worked just fine over here.

That must be the catch on the cheap games in India, its region locked.

 

completely agree with you, and believe me they are cheap, i picked up L4D for $10 or 499 rupees

 

I find it strange that it worked fine for Cathy but not for mtness.
I suppose India has more strict region locking than other regions?

That is a real downer.

I still may purchase a game like Left for Dead 2 there and try it out in the U.S. The back of my India-bought GTA4 said it had to be activated in India but I opened it in the U.S and activated it here and plays just fine, the multiplayer works, etc.

I'm hoping if someone else can chime in with their experience or tell me of somebody else' experience. I'd like to have full confirmation since I've heard a success and an unsuccessful story.

Whoohoo, 6000 posts!

 

congrats on reaching 6000 posts quite an achievement, mate i wasnt trying to discourage you, just informing you that of the four steam games a brought in India i had difficulty with one and couldnt play the second, i just tried Empire Total War and it seems to want to install fine so thats a 50% success rate, its probably worth the risk.

 

Interesting that some of your games worked and some didn't. Did you activate them all in India where you bought them before returning to New Zealand?

 

I got the Orange Box out of country and I had no problems

 

Yes mate as stated i activated them all in India, as i had been living there, they all where working perfectly the night before i left the country but DoW2 had troubles that i was able to fix apon reinstalling but L4D continued to give me the message shown in the earlier post.
Just informing you of what happened with me.
Id also imagine India as having more rigid regulations with steam games due to the amount of pirating going on.

 

I wanted to update this thread in saying that I am in India right now on vacation and purchased a retail, physical copy of Left For Dead 2 10 days ago for only 799 Indian rupees (~$17.5 USD).

I finally have access to the internet and activated the game successfully with the product key provided. However when my brother logs in my account in the U.S and tries to download/install the game, he receives an error that the game is invalid for his region. But I am able to download/install the games I bought in the U.S here in India.

I was also going to purchase The Orange Box and maybe some other Steam games here to play back home but now I won't.

Now, I can't even purchase an American copy when I get back home since the Indian copy is in my Steam games list, I'll have to ask Steam Support to hopefully remove it.

 

could this be a reason why i keep getting connected to japanese servers in l4d2?? im in the US

 

it actually doesnt surprise me its like buying a trail of the game, after all its so, so cheap......every game i buy via the steam store or in a western country allows me to play them anywhere........so steam games brought in India are done so at buyers risk.
it does only seem to be steam games though, every other disc game i have brought works perfectly fine where ever i am........so you can still get some great deals while you are there mate.

 

Indian & Thailandese softwares are very cheap because of the economical situation, they are only meant for those people. Not many people over there can afford $60 for games.


NA, EU & JPN version of games are all highly priced (especially EU & JPN).

 

You are right. I purchased GTA4 here in India last year when I came for vacation and although the back of the box stated it had to be activated in India, I opened the box back home in the U.S and it installed and activated 100% fine.

I also purchased The Sims 3: World Adventures here for about $13USD alongside Left For Dead 2 and it works just fine.

As I said, all the Steam games I purchased in the U.S install fine here in India but vice versa doesn't seem to apply. It is a shame that even if an Indian national here buys games from Steam here in India and moves to the U.S, he probably won't be able to play his games.

 

the only option that person would have is to buy his games directly from steam store, unfortunately at a greatly increased price from the disc versions in India.