Steam: Game Not Available In Your Territory

got this problem with counter strike: source.

so get this...you buy a game while on holiday or in your hometown, install it, play it. then travel home or go on a long holiday and poof...your game won't work any more.

i travel a lot and i have noticed that most games i buy are asia-region restricted...but seriously, there needs to be some allowance that if you install the game in one region, it works in all. that should take care of letting ppl travel with their games while preventing cross-region sales (since it's a price of game issue).

have submitted a support ticket.

btw, the place i bought it from (and most that i know of) will only take back/refund games if there's a technical error like:
1. cd/dvd doesn't work OR
2. your comp specs aren't high enough (this one is only if they're nice enough to take it back coz they normally make u read the specs when u buy the game).

 

Buy it directly through Steam and I don't believe there will be any issues.

 

I agree with that.

 

yeah, steam support said the same thing (part in red):

 

That sucks pretty hard, I have to say. So basically, what that says is if you travel internationally, evn if you buy the game legitimately, you can't play it wherever you are, even if you install it in the correct region. I hate region codes...

 

yes, that's exactly what they're saying. and yes, it sucks a$$.

what's the moral grey-ness of downloading a pirated copy of a game i've already paid for? lol.

other thing is: i don't have the bandwidth to download a game via steam after i've bought it. CS:source not so bad (1.7 GB) but HL2, etc. are 4+ GB. that's about my monthly limit.

 

Yeah right now im in the us virgin islands and im unable to buy games to my steam account. I had to settle with D2D (direct 2 Drive)

 

That does suck pretty bad. That is the issue with Steam games. The problem is that it affects a select few that I doubt Steam will ever do anything about it. Just because broadband is readily available there's still lots of people that can't or don't get it. I always thought they should offer the service to provide you with DVD backups of all your games for a nominal fee. This would help people in your case, but it will probably never happen.

Also, never try to play a pirated Steam game, Valve game especially. They will lock you out of your ENTIRE Steam account if caught, doesn't matter if you have $1000 worth of games.

 

If you're just looking to play offline games like HL2, get SteamBuster Revolution. It's basically a free Steam emulator that will allow you to launch single-player Steam games without connecting to the internet or updating. Obviously this doesn't work in multiplayer games like Counter-Strike. It definitely made my last summer easier when I didn't have internet access for almost four months.

 

you cant use STEAM on the virgin islands? Wow

 

No I think what he means is, that you cant go to another country and use your steam account.



What the hell... I have never heard of this before? That's f**king stupid. I can't move to another country and be allowed to play my games?

 

some games are available in the US but not the UK, like mass effect. so if you bought mass effect in the us, you won't be able to play it while on holiday in the uk. you shouldn't go to the uk for holidays anyway.

 

well...since they have the 'backup games' option in steam, i'm not sure DVD backups would really be worth any price since it can be backed-up and burnt to DVD ourselves, esp since Steam will split files as required by size. however, if i buy a game from the steam store, i would expect THAT to be delivered on DVD/packaging. i don't mind waiting a week for a game i've bought if i can't download it through steam. but do they do that? if so, deliver internationally?

wasn't planning to, was just thinking aloud about the irony of it

good idea, will get that 'just in case'. won't help my current CS:S problem though. and since the retailer won't take it back, my only option is to buy another copy and possibly pass this one to someone within the orig territory.

LOL


overall, i think this sucks when you consider that you'd like to be able to play your games 'for all time' or as long as you can get it to work on your current OS. so let's say you have a big life-changing event (+ve or -ve) and u need to move countries with your $1000 stash of valve games (about 25 games at $40 each if you buy them one-at-a-time when they came out)...poof! they all stop working. they should set a time limit on the regional blocking. like 6 months to 1 year after you've bought/installed it, it will then start working anywhere.

it's too bad valve makes good games that i love playing so i'm stuck with their steam-emanating-from-b.s.

 

One of the reasons I don't support Steam. You never own the game, so you're just renting it.

 

A lot of games work with steam in offline mode. How would they know where you are if you launch in offline mode?

 

Well, do you know if these also applies to games bought through the Steam deals?

Or to being more general, I pay the same amount of money in any case (like on steam deals), so where is the need for a restriction?

 

yes, and playing it with their permission. i'm surprised they haven't already got into trouble with the EU. this isn't quite the same as regional-DVD restrictions although the effects are the same. disabling something on-the-fly based on your location is quite cheesy.

i'm gonna look for the some proxy servers in the region which i can use to change my steam location, install the game and then restart without the proxy. fyi, changing the 'download' location doesn't help, i tried.

have steam taken into account that some IP ranges might be reported incorrectly?

offline mode is fine for single player games. steam default-launches in online mode. you'll have to 'restart in offline mode' or start it with your network disabled (or temporarily block steam in the firewall, whichever is easier). now, when u do start in online mode before you go offline, i don't know if steam checks for updates and disables the game or whatever. since i hadn't installed in the region i bought it, i don't know how this would work. i do know that the game can't be played coz the steam support email said so but i'm curious about what exactly happens.

well...games bought through steam (which probably cost the same as in the US) don't have regional restrictions. i assume this applies to steam deals. but good to check if you bought a game.

note that your steam account link (top-right corner in the steam webpage) lists your games but not their regional restrictions. so u have to check the packaging for details. note that the manuals don't have the details so if you've thrown away the game box, or left it behind as i have, you could try asking steam support to check the regional restrictions.