I noticed that Skyrim only was available to british users on direct2drive and sent them the following letter.

"Will you have a version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that is purchasable for users from Sweden?

The product page on direct2drive.co.uk says United Kingdom and the page on direct2drive.com says US. No other countries are mentioned."

"Hi there,

Thank you for contacting GameFly Digital Support.

This is a purchase restriction set by the publishers. We regret that we are unable to break these rules. In some cases, internet law regarding the sale of digital material may decide these restrictions and we want to abide by the law. We're sorry for any inconvenience.

Regards,

Kat Ullrich
Senior Support Specialist
GameFly Digital"

So all non-uk EU citizens should wait to import the game from UK until we know if the game will be locked to UK separately.

The game is available to purchase on steam (at extortion price) but Steam has various versions of the store for different countries in EU so it still might be regionlocked as well. So be careful on buying keys or gifted games from other countries.

I have mailed Bethesda and Zenimax, waiting for a response.

It's cool that digital distribution, which should aid the breaking down of region locking, is actually making it easier for publishers to set these restrictions.

Wait, not cool, I think the phrase I'm looking for is...fucking stupid.

Trying to purchase a game legally on the PC huh?

Well fuck you sir.

@coakroach said:

Trying to purchase a game legally on the PC huh?

Well fuck you sir.

well if this is true I am seriously considering the alternative. The thought has already entered my mind sphere due to the answer I recieved.

This isn't really region locking.

They are merely restricting the sale of the digital version of the game to abide by whatever rules and contracts they have with the game/publisher. Only the sale is locked. Not the actual installing/playing of the game. There is absolutely no way to actually properly enforce a region lock on the PC. Connect through a UK proxy, and buy it that way from them of you so wish. Similarly for any game keys. The beauty of PC is that you can be in any region you please. Hence why it is almost never done. Starcraft 2 had (I believe) the most harsh and sophisticated region restriction and you could still just buy any key you wanted, you would just play MP with the keys in the same region as your key, but actual play of the product is still unrestricted.

Their response to you is actually very carefully worded: "This is a purchase restriction set by the publishers."

Considering you can buy Skyrim on Steam in other regions this seems exactly what it is. D2D simply did not recieve the rights to sell it in other regions from the publisher.

Everyone should stop freaking out.

@Tennmuerti: But now my flimsy justification for piracy does not apply. Now how am I supposed to get away with playing it without paying?

@Tennmuerti said:

This isn't really region locking.

They are merely restricting the sale of the digital version of the game to abide by whatever rules and contracts they have with the game/publisher. Only the sale is locked. Not the actual installing/playing of the game. There is absolutely no way to actually properly enforce a region lock on the PC. Connect through a UK proxy, and buy it that way from them of you so wish. Similarly for any game keys. The beauty of PC is that you can be in any region you please. Hence why it is almost never done. Starcraft 2 had (I believe) the most harsh and sophisticated region restriction and you could still just buy any key you wanted, you would just play MP with the keys in the same region as your key, but actual play of the product is still unrestricted.

Their response to you is actually very carefully worded: "This is a purchase restriction set by the publishers."

Considering you can buy Skyrim on Steam in other regions this seems exactly what it is. D2D simply did not recieve the rights to sell it in other regions from the publisher.

Everyone should stop freaking out.

thing is, Dead Island had major problems with boxed version being regionlocked on steam for lots of nordic customers who bought the game in their own country so it is not only a sale restriction.

Also proxy cheating might warrant being banned from steam due (and losing all your games) to it breaking EULA for steam license.

@JudgeDread said:

thing is, Dead Island had major problems with boxed version being regionlocked on steam for lots of nordic customers who bought the game in their own country so it is not only a sale restriction.

Also proxy cheating might warrant being banned from steam due (and losing all your games) to it breaking EULA for steam license.

Dead Island Steam key activations in those countries was not an intended thing and was fixed from what I understand.

Poxying by itself is not bannable by Steam (it is not cheating in any form). Nor is simple key activation using a proxy, regardless of purchase. I travel around a lot and purchase/activate games in multiple countries. Plenty of people also proxy all the time to get around late EU release dates. And in this particular case it is specifically only a sale restriction as noted in their reply and by the games availability in other regions.

(also doing a quick search through Steams EULA there is no mention of either proxy/lock/region and country mentions are also unrelated)

Also forgot to mention in previous post: If you are buying a product not in the country where you are at one should always be ready to take extra steps in the process. After all if you get physical games from another country you have to actually import them. In the case of a digital game proxying replaces importation. It is also cheaper easier and faster to boot :)

Region-locking games is retarded. It's like they want people to pirate their games -_-

Thank GAME/European arm of GameStop for this.

Didn't Space Marine not come out on Steam in the UK for a reason?

@mosdl said:

Didn't Space Marine not come out on Steam in the UK for a reason?

It's still absent for the UK, Saints Row 3 aswell. Apparently GAME dislike THQ using Steamworks so threatened to not sell the console versions unless THQ keep it off the Steam store.

Bethesda got similar threats as Skyrim wasn't up for pre-order in the UK until recently, something about keeping it off Steam until a certain date. It's up now though.

@mosdl said:

Didn't Space Marine not come out on Steam in the UK for a reason?

You mean SPAIC MUH-ROINE?

@Vorbis said:

@mosdl said:

Didn't Space Marine not come out on Steam in the UK for a reason?

It's still absent for the UK, Saints Row 3 aswell. Apparently GAME dislike THQ using Steamworks so threatened to not sell the console versions unless THQ keep it off the Steam store.

Bethesda got similar threats as Skyrim wasn't up for pre-order in the UK until recently, something about keeping it off Steam until a certain date. It's up now though.

Sorry for reviving an old thread!

We don't have these stores in the country and still get "region" lockouts from Steam games. Don't know why. I get that Windows Live games are being blocked because I live in a not supported country. But single-player only games too? Give me a break. Digital distribution should be without borders!

Reading about BF3 release bs I'm glad that I decided not to buy these "AAA" titles anymore. My internet connection is wonky and "always-on-drm" is just one big problem to deal with. :D