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English Can you buy a steam game form different region?

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old Can you buy a steam game form different region?

Glix
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Is it possible to buy a game from a different region and play in the local servers? Lets say that the game x costs 50 in Northern-Europe and you buy it for 20 euro from Russia (by telling your friend to log into your account and buy it for you from there), would the game be region locked?
Thanks.

old Re: Can you buy a steam game form different region?

DC
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Most region locks can be tricked with a VPN. I'm not sure if this is legal. Probably not.

In Steam you need the VPN to activate AND to play the game. So it's quite annoying. The game becomes a "normal" game in your library after like 2-3 months and you don't have to use a VPN connection anymore from that point on but until then you have to use it whenever you want to play the game. You probably also would have a horrible ping/latency in multiplayer games when using a VPN (especially if it's a free one).

But as I said: This is potentially dangerous, annoying and probably not fully legal. Don't betray game developers by buying cheap versions for other countries. Get the local version and support the devs. Prices only differ for countries because they are based on the income of the people living there. It's fair and it would be bad to trick this system.
edited 1×, last 01.11.18 10:54:35 am

old Re: Can you buy a steam game form different region?

VADemon
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This is possible, but discouraged to a point of DISABLING your account. Gifts had been region-locked a very long time ago.

Sharing your account is also against their ToS but practically they do not care if its between 1-2 friends (probably until you start purchasing games out of borders).

old Re: Can you buy a steam game form different region?

Glix
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@user Rainoth: Some games obviously may not have this since their playerbase is too small. I want to hear what the community says rather than some blogs.

@user DC: Does that mean that if I create a new account while having my VPN located in Russia, it will automatically assume I live in Russia after some period of time?

old Re: Can you buy a steam game form different region?

DC
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@user DC: Does that mean that if I create a new account while having my VPN located in Russia, it will automatically assume I live in Russia after some period of time?

No, I meant newly bought region-locked games will be unlocked after a few months so they can be played without VPN. I don't know why it works like that to be honest. Maybe legal reasons. Your Steam account is not affected by this*. It will still be "linked" to the country/region you're living in. So if you buy another game which is not for your region you'll have to use VPN for it again - at least until it gets unlocked as well.

*) unless Valve decides to block it because you're doing suspicious and probably forbidden stuff.

I don't know what happens if you keep using Steam with the VPN connection only. That's a horrible idea anyway because it would affect all your Steam multiplayer games and all Steam downloads in a negative way.
I would however assume that at some point Steam says "oh, that person probably moved so let's switch the region of the account". Just guessing though. You'll certainly find more on this topic when you search for it. There must be people with Steam accounts who moved to another country.

old Re: Can you buy a steam game form different region?

Masea
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user Glix has written
@user Masea:
Depends entirely on the game. I fully support the developers that I think deserve my money and for example I never buy games from EA or Ubisoft.
Does that also mean that the games don't deserve your money should be bought from a distinct region which may reduce the money you give? I'm not telling this is illegal but if it is what you do, it slightly seems nonsensical to me.

old Re: Can you buy a steam game form different region?

Glix
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@user DC: Thanks a lot.
@user Rainoth: I was talking about steam. Do they really region lock games with small playerbases?
@user Masea: I'm not buying unfinished and overpriced games. There are just few games my friends invited me to play and they told me themself that either wait for sales or try to get it somewhere else. No need to tell me what is right and wrong, its completely irrelevant to the question.
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