By Lewie Procter on August 17th, 2011 at 9:50 am.
Oh dear, someone isn’t supporting our No Oceans campaign. Square-Enix have sadly region locked the boxed retail versions of the PC release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution across Europe. Retail copies sold in the UK will only activate on UK Steam accounts. It’s a similar story for copies sold in Russia/Poland, and the rest of the EU makes up the third European region.
What possible motivation could Square-Enix have for restricting the range of choice that their European customers have when it comes to deciding where to buy their game from? Well I had a poke around, and for gamers in France, for example, the cheapest price I’ve been able to find for Human Revolution is €35.99 (or £31.51), whereas they would be able to import a UK copy for £23.49 + £4 shipping, a total of £27.49 (or €31.40). Looking at the pricing of buying Human Revolution direct from Steam, the UK price is £29.99 (or €34.25) and the Euro price is €44.99 (or £39.38). This region locking protects Square-Enix’s policy of international pricing, and prevents customers who are in the EU from being able to avoid the price hike of ~30% Square Enix may or may not have decided to bestow upon their region.
It’s interesting to look at how this reflects on Square-Enix because of the nature of the game’s development. Local market factors meant that it was most cost effective for Squeenix to open their new studio in Montreal, so to save costs they took part in the global economy, and essentially bought development man-hours from the cheapest international seller. When local market factors result in it being more cost effective for their customers to take part in the global economy, and buy from the cheapest international seller, Square-Enix have coded a solution to prevent them from being able to do so. Interesting!
It also seems as if Square-Enix have done nothing to ensure retailers inform their customers about this region locking. I’ve just checked the listing for Human Revolution on pretty much every major UK online retailer, and not one of them has any mention of this region locking. Update: Amazon have now added a warning about the region lock, but none of the other retailers I have checked have done yet.
This also troubles any customers hoping to import the UK Augmented edition, which (I believe) is the only version that includes all the game content (with other regions splitting up the “bonus content” for various retailer exclusive promotions). Sorry, if you don’t live in the UK you can’t get the “best” version of the game.
Quite what the motivation for this isn’t clear, but it’s evidently wrapped up with both serving distributors and the decision to use Valve’s Steamworks to control region activation. We’ve contacted SE asking for a comment on why they’ve decided to add these limitations to the retail version of the game.
More details on the region locking can be found in this forum thread. It’s worth noting that codes sold through other digital distributors will not be region locked, it is just the boxed release that will be locked.
All together now: What. A. Shame.
17/08/2011 at 09:53 Gassalasca says:
What a shame.
17/08/2011 at 11:39 TWeaK says:
Just a bump reply so people can see this post by one of the Eidos moderators. To quote:
A:
1) PC games are region free, so wherever you get it from it’ll work. However, one thing we do know is that the US augmented edition does not come with all the pre-order content, but the European one does. Try ordering from game.co.uk, they should ship to your location and that way you’ll get all the content.
2) Not yet confirmed either way, but at a guess it’ll probably be available on store shelves too.
3) You can pre-order on Steam, but no word on whether that gives you all or any of the pre-order content.
@edit: Hmm, apparently ‘not all those quotes are official statements’. This was after a mod linked to it to say that people were advised to look into their retailers closely in the first place, but then they didn’t realise there were these quotes that say the PC version would be region-free.
17/08/2011 at 12:01 Magnetude says:
From that thread:
“Region locks are in place to stop `grey` importing, which whilst consumers may not really care where they get their product from as they just want `A` copy of the game, to the companies who distribute (and ourselves who pay for distribution) each territory has a very different cost base and price to ship to etc and these are reflected in local prices (ask anyone in Tazmania for example about cost of games and they will probably cry as they so expensive to get imported etc)”
I don’t understand this. I’m sure that retailers in foreign countries are trying to sell at the lowest price, especially independent ones that need to undercut the big chains in order to do business.
But why is it cheaper for the consumer to order from another country, even with shipping included, when surely shipping in bulk should work out cheaper?
17/08/2011 at 12:09 Tams80 says:
If a local retailer can’t compete with the price of an import (of a genuine game), then I see no reason why people should be forced to buy from them.
17/08/2011 at 12:20 TWeaK says:
Someone’s done their legwork: http://forums.eidosgames.com/showpost.php?p=1650145&postcount=359
I think that pretty much confirms it’s illegal. Follow the links and file complaints, I say, then chances are it’ll be dropped (at least in the EU anyway).
17/08/2011 at 13:23 Thomas says:
In case anyone’s interested, here’s the regions that the specific countries (By country code) are being categorized as:
UK Region = IM JE GS GB UK (I’m not sure if GB and UK are the same in this context or if it does include ireland and scotland)
Russia Region = AM AZ BY GE KZ KG MD RU TJ TM UZ UA LV LT EE BY MD (Note: Poland isn’t listed as the polish versions are not region locked, even though they share region with Russia)
Worldwide = Everything else :)
17/08/2011 at 13:57 John Connor says:
Going to hijack the top comment here just to let you guys know, you can get DEHR region free for 35 USD.
Unless you’re some kind of purist who desperately wants a boxed copy (unlikely on RPS, right?) this is probably the best deal you’ll get on this game until it goes on Steam sale.
17/08/2011 at 14:08 Nighthood says:
Sorry for hijacking an earlier post, but I made a petition against this. Might achieve SOMETHING, if we’re lucky.
http://www.change.org/petitions/square-enix-remove-region-locking-from-all-copies-of-deus-ex-human-revolution
17/08/2011 at 09:56 Hakkesshu says:
What a shame indeed. I had a pre-order going on Amazon UK, which I had to cancel since I live in mainland Europe. Now I have to pay almost twice as much.
Edit: I don’t believe the UK edition is the only one that has all the content. At least the local one I’m looking at here in Scandinavia has everything listed. Unless they’re selling UK copies of the game, unknowingly. Boy, that’s going to be a fun surprise…
17/08/2011 at 12:40 Cinek says:
Yep… I got similar issue. Pre-ordered it in UK with import to Poland.
DAMN YOU stupid sales polices.
We live in the age of globalization where I can talk with a fellow on the other edge of the globe real-time, and yet no way to play a game imported from country in EU. Damn it.
17/08/2011 at 13:27 nofing says:
Yeah, I have to cancel my pre-order as well, but I’m not going to pay twice the price.
Well, I guess I won’t play Deus Ex then.
17/08/2011 at 18:31 EiZei says:
I also cancelled my pre-order, I have never ever had done this before. Way to go Square-Enix!
17/08/2011 at 09:57 Squirrelfanatic says:
What a sham.
18/08/2011 at 03:27 Zaboomafoozarg says:
I speel my dreenk!
17/08/2011 at 09:58 zipdrive says:
What a shame
17/08/2011 at 12:25 Joshua says:
How pointlessly tragic.
17/08/2011 at 09:59 Bennus says:
What a shame
17/08/2011 at 10:01 Seniath says:
What a shame
(Also; posting in what will be a legendary thread)
17/08/2011 at 10:01 zipdrive says:
What happens if one has a “US” steam account but now lives in the UK? Can’t buy the game, then?
17/08/2011 at 10:22 Thomas says:
Nothing, when the copy is activated, it will work everywhere, it is infact also be possible for a UK resident to gift a non-UK resident the game (Over Steam, not by buying the key and sending it to a non-UK resisdent).
As long as the payment method you have is valid for Great Britain (Some CC companies don’t allow purchases outside the US for example) then it will be bought using UK prices, and work everywhere in the world.
17/08/2011 at 10:29 zipdrive says:
But Lewie just said you won’t be able to activate, since (in this example) a boxed copy was bought in the UK and the steam account was marked “US”.
17/08/2011 at 10:56 cckerberos says:
You don’t have a “US” or “UK” Steam account. Steam uses your IP to determine which Steam store you’re given access to, so the only thing that matters is your current location. You need a payment method and address which matches that location, though.
17/08/2011 at 11:06 Thomas says:
Exactly, this is also why you can use a UK-based VPN to “bypass” the region lockout if you’re in that situation.
17/08/2011 at 11:44 zipdrive says:
So, you cn’t buy overeas, but if you ARE overseas, you can buy, activate on steam, and then play back home at your leisure.
17/08/2011 at 12:49 Wahngrok says:
It says in the linked forum thread:
“Q: If I buy a boxed UK copy and activate it in the UK, will I be able to play it in other regions?
A: That’s a most definitive yes. ”
So a UK-proxy will apparently the solution for activation.
17/08/2011 at 10:02 Flibberdy says:
I thought that you weren’t allowed to create artificial trade barriers between different EU states. Is this even legal?
Edit: C-C-C-Combo breaker?
17/08/2011 at 10:36 MiniMatt says:
I was just thinking that. Am not a lawyer (and lets face it, internet lawyering on forums is lower still) but strikes me as rather restrictive in what is supposed to be an open market.
Closest approximation to this I can recall is the ongoing issue of whether it’s ok to buy your English football broadcasting from a Greek company rather than from Sky’s UK arm – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12355022 – so far it’s been running pretty much in favour of open trade but whichever way it goes will have some far reaching effects.
If I can buy my TV coverage from a Greek outlet why can’t I buy my games from them?
17/08/2011 at 11:21 Magnetude says:
Corporations have more power than the government…
17/08/2011 at 11:55 povu says:
I’m really annoyed right now, but Magnetude still wins the internet.
17/08/2011 at 13:03 GenBanks says:
I was thinking the same thing, but I doubt a single MEP has ever heard of Steam.
17/08/2011 at 13:20 HermitUK says:
@Magnetude
Our governments have limited power by design.
17/08/2011 at 13:28 Dowson says:
I’m sure it must be, the whole point of the EU trade zone is you choose the cheapest product or service no matter where its from, I’m sure councils in the UK have had to go to court for using British companies for some transport when a Polish company could do it cheaper and they were obliged to use the Polish one.
I would assume this also applies to consumers, but I imagine no one has bothered to take it to the courts.
18/08/2011 at 00:18 Luckz says:
It’s exactly that, an illegal trade barrier.
18/08/2011 at 10:51 Christian Dannie Storgaard says:
It depends on where you are.
E.g. here in Denmark it’s actually illegal for you to import any “media” product (film, music, game, book, etc.) if there is already a Danish distributor of the “main” product; meaning it’s illegal for you to buy the original English version of a book online if it’s only sold in it’s translated form here, and it’s illegal to order that Criterion special edition DVD of some film if the TV-edit is already available on VHS here…. crazy, crazy laws.
Either way, it sounds like this whole problem can be solved by using a VPN.
17/08/2011 at 10:02 Robin says:
I never asked for this.
17/08/2011 at 10:02 oceanclub says:
Aside from this being a completely dick move to pull a week before release, I can’t believe that regionlocking where the UK and EU are considered seperate regions is legal under EU consumer law. This means that as an Irish consumer, I can’t buy an item in the UK that’s fit for purpose in Ireland,
P.
17/08/2011 at 10:10 Thomas says:
Bethesda/Zenimax/Splash Damaged pulled the same stunt on Brink, however D2D fixed those keys for us, infact they even gave us 2 if you were quick enough.
We got the UK key(Was quickly removed after they found out the keys couldn’t be activated everywhere as they should be)
Then we got a key that could be activated anywhere.
If you were quick enough to get the UK key you could give it to a friend and activate it through a UK VPN, and use the other key for yourself. :D
But yes, i could understand the eurasia/asia locking as that’s first of all probably legal, and second of all very very much cheaper than anything else, even UK copies, but this is taking it to far, and probably borderline illegal.
18/08/2011 at 00:20 Luckz says:
The Brink lock, like Portal 2, is in still rather unique in that you cannot actually play an activated Russian copy outside of Russia.
But yeah, Brink is legal and annoying, this is not legal. But at least they allow you to play it anywhere once you activated it, so it’s not really annoying. Just illegal.
17/08/2011 at 10:02 Christian says:
Ok, canceling my preorder with play.com right now (I live in Germany).
Thanks for the information guys. Otherwise, I would have received a game I wouldn’t be able to play.
Fuck this, and fuck them. There are other great games coming out.
Still, this makes me a mighty angry Angry-Internet-Man.
17/08/2011 at 10:02 Mungrul says:
Lewie, the forum link actually goes through to a KB article on changing language through Steam.
17/08/2011 at 10:07 Lewie Procter says:
Tah, fixed.
17/08/2011 at 10:02 Spider Jerusalem says:
Buy it on Green Man Gaming for 35% off. Those keys are region-free.
17/08/2011 at 12:41 Dozer says:
[Citation needed]
17/08/2011 at 13:30 acabtr says:
here from GMG forums, their keys will not be region locked
http://forums.greenmangaming.com/topic/434/?page=1#post-4198
17/08/2011 at 10:03 StingingVelvet says:
If you believe that regional pricing has a use… which it does, considering the wildly varying wages and cost of living… then region locking makes perfect sense.
The problem is when regional pricing is not done right and similar economies get wildly different prices.
17/08/2011 at 10:27 Alexander Norris says:
No. The problem is that corporations get to follow one law (buy the cheapest labour) and prevent us from following the same (buy the cheapest goods).
This is not how globalisation is supposed to work.
17/08/2011 at 10:58 GallonOfAlan says:
Regional pricing has only one use, which is for the sales dept. to gouge as much as possible out of each region. Otherwise what’s wrong with allowing everyone access to the cheapest price and let the market decide ?
17/08/2011 at 11:36 StingingVelvet says:
Are either of you really saying a car should cost the same in India and the US? A house the same in the US and Mexico? Hell, within the US prices and standard wages can vary wildly. Compare the cost of living in California to Pennsylvania.
Regional pricing will exist and should exist as long as we have varying economies. The only problem here is companies price gouging certain countries that don’t deserve a higher price. Don’t blame regional pricing itself for companies doing it badly.
17/08/2011 at 11:42 Magnetude says:
StingingVelvet: No, a car in India and a car in the US should cost whatever they want to charge for it there. But I should be able to choose to buy a Tata instead of a Chevrolet and expect it to work when I get it back home.
17/08/2011 at 11:45 Ovno says:
Same car different places, Yes.
After all there are plenty of budget cars available.
Different house, different places, No.
17/08/2011 at 12:37 drewski says:
I fail to see how retailer in arbitrary geopolitical entity A has more right to my money than retailer in arbitrary geopolitical entity B simply because I happen also, by coincidence, to reside in arbitrary geopolitical entity A.
17/08/2011 at 12:42 Avenger says:
@Stingingvelvet
I don’t understand how it justifies region locking
I live in a third world country.
Our economy is shit, I have a very low quality life and my comparably low wage is only equalized by comparably low food prices. (Comparing to rest of Europe of course)
Some things are way expensive for me to consider even buying. Especially imported goods + import tax
Tell me, exactly, why am I supposed to pay 2 to 3 times much for the games I’d like to play? Why can’t I just order online and pay for just shipping?
17/08/2011 at 12:44 Dozer says:
I believe an individual house costs the same whether the buyer lives in the US, Mexico, Timbuctu or the Lake of Tranquility. Shipping charges tend to be quite high on those things though.
17/08/2011 at 10:03 Riotpoll says:
What a shame.
17/08/2011 at 10:04 Daiz says:
This is not just a shame, but also a potential violation of free trade laws in the EU. For everyone annoyed about it, I suggest lodging a complaint to the European Commision.
I am highly affected myself, as I have had a pre-order for the Augmented Edition from Zavvi since early June. Problem being that I live in Finland. And even a bigger problem being that alternative stores I’ve looked into are sold out on the retail version of the Augmented Edition, meaning that my choices are to either get an Augmented Edition that I can’t activate, a digital copy that won’t have the physical art book, or a normal copy with none of the Augmented Edition bonuses.
Yippee-fucking-yay. Thanks a goddamn lot, Squeenix.
17/08/2011 at 10:06 Anthile says:
Yeah, I’m fairly certain it’s not legal.
17/08/2011 at 10:08 sneetch says:
Lodging a complaint sounds like a plan to me, I doubt it’ll affect this release but may put them off trying it in the future.
17/08/2011 at 10:51 KauhuK says:
I don’t know how many copies VPD will have but they are not announcing that they are sold out. http://www.vpd.fi/tuote/23880/437/65/PC/Toiminta/Deus%20Ex%20-%20Human%20Revolution%20Augmented%20Edition%20PC%20%28DVD%29%20%28%C3%85land%201966%29
17/08/2011 at 13:46 olemars says:
Another place to file a complaint is the EFTA surveillance authority, if you live in one of the EFTA countries.
17/08/2011 at 14:14 oceanclub says:
Here’s a letter I sent to the EU Commission Competition address – please feel free to use as a basis for your own:
From:
To:
Hi there,
I live in the Republic of Ireland. Back in December, I pre-ordered the videogame “Deus Ex Human Revolution from Amazon.co.uk. I’ve purchased many such games from Amazon.co.uk and other UK online retailers before; perhaps a dozen each year for the past 10 years.
Just yesterday, the publisher of the videogame, Square Enix, announced that their particular videogame had region-locking – the UK version of the game will not work in the rest of the EU (including Ireland), and vice versa. Amazon.co.uk themselves did not know about this restriction until the last hour (I have just been onto their support line.) Only this morning, they claimed my purchase would work fine.
Here’s is the relevant information from the Square Enix support site:
http://support.eu.square-enix.com/faqarticle.php?kid=59795&ret=main&id=2134&la=2&pv=20&SQEXSC=7qllfsuh1m4mt4363djgb80jn3
“The PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution is region-locked.”
However, when I bought the game, they reassured customer there was no such region locking in this official post in November 2010:
http://forums.eidosgames.com/showpost.php?p=1530984&postcount=1
In it, they say:
1) PC games are region free, so wherever you get it from it’ll work.
Luckily I am able to cancel my order. However, I find it hard to believe this cannot be illegal under EU consumer law – as far as I know, any item I buy in the UK should be fit for purpose and usable in Ireland, and at the very least, consumers should be notified of this before purchase rather than the company changing their minds at the very last minute?
Would appreciate a very quick answer on this,
Thanks in advance, etc.
17/08/2011 at 16:30 Daiz says:
KauhuK: Since the only official copy for Finland is apparently the Nordic Edition, I was suspicious that the Augmented Edition that VPD was would turn out to be an UK import. I called them earlier today about it and they couldn’t answer it then, but if you check now you can notice that the Augmented Edition has disappeared from their store. In other words, I guess it indeed would have been an UK import and thus couldn’t have been activated.
And I was thinking of switching over my order just in case… Goddamn, this is infuriating.
17/08/2011 at 17:58 Botje says:
Hi, long time lurker *waves*
I just signed up to say I also contacted my local ECC branch. Let’s see what they have to say about it..
17/08/2011 at 10:05 sneetch says:
What a shame.
They’d need to inform Amazon and other suppliers of this quick-smart I’ve had it pre-ordered on Amazon.co.uk since January despite living in Ireland and I’ve no intention of changing that now (most publishers don’t differentiate between Ireland and the UK anyway so I’ll risk it).
17/08/2011 at 10:40 ChaseGunman says:
Also Irish, pre-ordered the complete edition from Amazon UK.
I have no intention of cancelling my order, but if it doesn’t work I’m pirating the whole thing so as I can play what I paid for.
17/08/2011 at 11:05 Magnetude says:
ChaseGunman: This is usually where I’d step in and tell you to grow up for using a publisher’s actions as a justification for piracy…
But you know what, that makes sense. Carry on.
As much as I love what the developers are doing with this game, Squeenix just couldn’t be more of an arse about this release, with all the retailer-specific bonuses, throwing in a ‘cut’ mission as an incentive and all the other bullshit. And now they’re knowingly locking people out of the game after taking their money for it.
17/08/2011 at 11:16 Gundrea says:
Region locking the UK is not just insane, it’s impossible. 3/16 of Ireland is in the UK and has no border control with the rest of its island. I’m trawling the trade agreements between Ireland and Britain at the moment since I’m sure this ticks off something in addition to the EU competition laws.
17/08/2011 at 10:06 zeroskill says:
Way to go Square Enix. Way to piss into the faces of your Eastern European customers, they have to pay €44.99 for Deus Ex, while people from the UK only have to pay €34.25? What a pathetic joke.
If this is intentional, this comes close to racism. In comparison, Valve offers Portal 2 for the Eastern European countries (Tier 2) for €22.49, thats a price that is affordable for people from that region.
17/08/2011 at 10:31 Ultra Superior says:
Look, UK has it cheaper as a thank you gift for not robbing their videogames store.
17/08/2011 at 12:40 drewski says:
Racism? Really?
Funny how suddenly it matters when it’s Europe who is affected by regional pricing, rather than everyone else in the world…
17/08/2011 at 12:45 Cinek says:
well, it’s cause we have here the EU which can force various things on a companies, even as big as Microsoft. So here floats a hope that something will be done with it. As AFAIK it’s bit illegal to create artificial borders and discriminate part of EU customers.
17/08/2011 at 13:07 drewski says:
I’m not saying it’s legal, I’m just saying it’s not racist.
17/08/2011 at 10:06 Paul says:
Cancelled augmented uk preorder, ordered “limited” version locally. Squeenix will get less of my money. Still feels dirty though, I am tempted to pirate it altogether. The only reason I won’t is my respect for the devs themselves. Their bosses can go fuck themselves though.
17/08/2011 at 10:07 Ninja Dodo says:
Well that’s rather stupid. Not least also because if you’re in France you can’t usually get an English language version without importing it. They dub everything… and unlike a DVD you (usually) can’t just change the audio track to English.
I always bought my boxed games from Amazon UK when I was in France.
17/08/2011 at 10:16 Anthile says:
Same situation in Germany.
17/08/2011 at 10:30 Oozo says:
What a shame indeed.
I’m from Switzerland, and it really is annoying like hell.
There’s the price. Not being able to order it in the UK will make the game at least 50% more expensive for me. (Not even talking about brick&mortar shops – there, the local version would cost, not kidding, 100% more.)
But what’s way worse: I don’t want to play this game in German. Nor do I want to play a censored version of the game. So it comes down to cracking it (which I have never done before with a game), or paying more and not being able to put a shiny box in my shelf. Thanks for the choice, Square-Enix!
I hate region locked movies with a passion, really hoped that it would never come to this with games. (Heck, even PS3 games are NOT region locked…)
17/08/2011 at 10:30 Sinomatic says:
They said on the forum you could use steam to change the language, and it would just download any additional necessary files. They just had restrictions on the dvd versions due to size constraints.
17/08/2011 at 10:46 Oozo says:
That makes things a we bit better then. (But still not ok.)
17/08/2011 at 10:07 hmrf says:
Now that’s stupid. I’ve preordered the Collectors Edition from amazon.co.uk, but live in Germany.
I don’t want German versions of games. Looks like I’ll keep my UK order and just wait for a crack.
17/08/2011 at 10:07 SalsaShark says:
Was going to pre-order it today but i guess not anymore since it looks to be around $25aud more expensive than the UK store i buy my games from.
17/08/2011 at 10:07 Rii says:
Given that I’ve already ordered and paid for the game from a UK retailer I’m more than a little pissed off about this. In fact, I’m pissed off about the AAA industry in general and the sheer contempt it has for PC gamers in particular. A side-serving of bile is reserved not so much for Steam as for the community’s doe-like acceptance of its creeping tyranny. I hope the whole industry crashes and burns and that when it does I’m there to stomp on the pieces.
17/08/2011 at 10:13 The Sombrero Kid says:
What is “Boxed” ?
17/08/2011 at 10:21 Spork says:
“Cheaper”.
17/08/2011 at 10:46 The Sombrero Kid says:
The cheapest i can find it is a digital copy from shopto.net, can retail really beat £25?
17/08/2011 at 12:42 Spork says:
I’ve pre-ordered the augmented edition from Amazon at £25 (OK forgot to factor in fast postage).
It’s actually cheaper than the standard version (why?), and it’s now showing as unavailable on pc…
Seriously Amazon, get it together.
17/08/2011 at 12:44 Schadenfreude says:
@Spork
It’s because people are now cancelling their pre-orders, so copies are freeing up. These are obviously people who pre-ordered very early so got it at the cheap, cheap rate.
17/08/2011 at 10:14 Bennus says:
The What A Shame Train derailed. :( Replaced by useful conversation. What have we come to?
17/08/2011 at 10:15 LarsBR says:
Old men.
17/08/2011 at 10:14 Ultra Superior says:
100x What a shame! Their “editions” are the most fucked up marketing mess I’ve seen in a long while.
Let me illustrate – I’ve been eager to pay approx £88 for the collector edition with the Kai figurine.
I’ve preordered it in my local retail store.
Then I got a message, that Square Enix cancelled the distribution for Collector Ed. for central europe (at least).
So I’ve changed my preorder to the Augmented Edition for approx. £53
Then I discovered, that the in-game bonuses I’m most interested in are only available in a “limited edition” which is £39 !!!!!!!
So I changed my preorder again. To summarize it: I wanted to give them £88 and they forced me to give them £39. Well done marketing idiots. Well done.
17/08/2011 at 10:17 skinlo says:
Why are you complaining that you are paying less? I’d be happy!
17/08/2011 at 10:36 Ultra Superior says:
Well I’m not happy about the price either – it’s just that DX is for me ‘teh bestest’ game of all time and as such I wanted to treat myself to the best edition. Because of their irrational marketing schemes, I and my friends who are also DX enthusiasts, couldn’t.
17/08/2011 at 10:15 Silphatos says:
Thanks to Eidos for reminding me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09vVF-Hvykg and making me watch it once again.
What a shame.
17/08/2011 at 10:16 Raiyan 1.0 says:
What a twist!
17/08/2011 at 10:16 skinlo says:
Living in the UK, it doesn’t bother me at all, but I do feel sorry for the Europeans. Quickly, adopt the pound!
17/08/2011 at 10:17 Schadenfreude says:
Another Irish person with a UK preorder. Just gonna have to sit tight and hope it works.
If not:
a.) Fuck them.
b.) Double-fuck them.
17/08/2011 at 15:27 sneetch says:
I imagine the UK version must work in Ireland, I don’t remember ever seeing an Irish copy of a game ( as distinct from a UK version) and the game shops over here are GAME, Gamestop, HMV, Zavvi and so on nearly all UK chains… I doubt they have Irish specific distribution chains.
Of course, I could be left rather sad face when my copy arrives if it becomes apparent that Square-Enix didn’t know that.
17/08/2011 at 10:17 Thany says:
Ive had an old preorder from ASDA entertainment for augmented version for 31€ + shiping and now I will have to fork out 58€ at the local retailer. FUCK YOU Square Enix, FUCK YOU.
17/08/2011 at 10:22 CaspianRoach says:
Retail game copies in Russia usually cost around 100-200 roubles, which is about 5 euros or 8 dollars or something but they’re hardlocked into russian version only. I’ve seen some sites that buy licensed russian copies, make an automatic english patcher for them using game files from english version and sell them for a bit lower than normal retail price in eu/us. That’s quite a profitable business and I think Squeenix is trying to fight it.
17/08/2011 at 10:58 Unaco says:
What? So why the fuck are we complaining that Euros have to pay above UK price? We should all be paying Russian price!
17/08/2011 at 11:03 CMaster says:
To be fair, average russian wages and cost of living are appreciably lower.
However, Germany/France/Netherlands are similar to the UK , while in the same group, you have places likes Czech Republic and Lithuania – while far from starving, average disposable income in these places is far lower. So beyond the philosophical ridiculousness we already have, there’s not even a sensible justification for this.
17/08/2011 at 19:56 KenTWOu says:
@CaspianRoach
Nope. It’s 600-1000 rubles (20-33 dollars) for modern games (excluding crazy collector’s editions).
For example, retail game copy of Augmented Edition costs 999 rubles in Russia.
http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/7000540/
While cheaper version of the game costs 599 rubles.
http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/7000514/
And I’m talking about PC games. Unfortunately console games have european prices in Russia.
17/08/2011 at 10:23 skyturnedred says:
Well that’s disappointing. Gonna have to stop eating for a few weeks to afford the game now.
17/08/2011 at 10:23 jakonovski says:
Suddenly I don’t want this game so much anymore. What is it with douchebag publishers these days?
17/08/2011 at 10:40 PoulWrist says:
Suddenly? You realise that ALL publishers have been shafting us this way through steam since… well, always. Retail copies cost ~35% less here in Denmark, including 25% VAT, than steam sold copies that include 15% VAT. That’s a nice profitmargin right there.
It’s not suddenly. It’s been going on since they started charging in Euro.
17/08/2011 at 11:52 Ovno says:
Yes but there not normally region locked…
17/08/2011 at 10:23 icedon says:
Hey,
Long time lurker and subscriber. I took the time to register for commenting. This is definitly an angry internet men post. Let the preorder/region-lock/Angry-Tank Posts roll!
I just cancelled my preorder from Amazon UK. I always buy US/UK Versions of “boxed” games.
Since I live in germany, buying adult games through steam is not an option because of “low-violence-versions”.
That leaves me baffled. How am I supposed to get a legal, uncensored version? The “boxed” version which will be released in germany will surely be cut/censored/not featuring the full content.
Do you have any advice?
Best Regards
Don
17/08/2011 at 10:27 CaspianRoach says:
>codes sold through other digital distributors will not be region locked
Try something other than Steam.
17/08/2011 at 10:29 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
Only boxed copies will be locked. Digital downloads will be region-free. As I understand it.
17/08/2011 at 11:27 SaVi says:
All digital Distributors either won’t sell to germany or sell the german version, not to speak of those not trustworthy, lacking paying options or actually having the game for sale. getting games to germany is in retail easier.
Jupp, easier with oceans then with cables, the irony.
17/08/2011 at 12:49 Dozer says:
Is “legal, uncensored” an oxymoron?
17/08/2011 at 15:20 icedon says:
Legal and uncensored = a paid for, non-german version, not crippled by any low-violence-implementation whatsoever
I would really like to buy this game on Impulse: Sorry, region lock.
I woul really like to buy this game on d2d: Sorry, region lock.
So, am I forced to buy this game for €60,- in germany?
17/08/2011 at 19:57 RegisteredUser says:
Since this applies to you, too:
1. Aquire friend in Netherlands or anywhere else that isn’t censored.
2. Have him gift the game to you.
3. Repay him via free SEPA wire.
4. Many many uncensored profits.
I know for sure that this would have also gotten you an uncensored L4D2 in Germany.
17/08/2011 at 10:25 vanilla bear says:
It’s a complicated one from a competition law perspective – it’s clearly against the principle of free movement of goods within the Common Market, but it’s done in quite a subtle way – by actually doctoring the goods themselves. Amazon.co.uk are still free to sell the boxed copy to someone in France, but the goods will be worthless to the buyer
Nevertheless I’m pretty sure it would be found illegal, and the punishments can be severe: fines of up to 10% of worldwide turnover on the offending parties. This would include Steam, I think.
17/08/2011 at 10:38 CMaster says:
It strikes me if the issue is cloudy legally, the best approach for us is to report it to the commission, and let them work out if there is a case or not.
17/08/2011 at 10:55 vanilla bear says:
The root of the problem is Steam, since if Steam didn’t support this “region-locking”, then it most likely wouldn’t be included on the retail copies.
The agreements that publishers have with Steam are very likely to infringe European competition law, as they include price-fixing within different European areas.
Sadly if Steam are forced to mend their ways, they’ll probably charge UK customers the same as other EU customers, rather than the other way round. Better to keep prices high in the EU and sacrifice your UK customers than the alternative.
17/08/2011 at 11:21 Gundrea says:
If amazon are selling software that does not work then it is still a violation of domestic retail law. The software is “not fit for purpose” and the retailer is obligated to offer either a replacement or full refund.
17/08/2011 at 12:02 Milky1985 says:
“The agreements that publishers have with Steam are very likely to infringe European competition law, as they include price-fixing within different European areas.”
DVD’s have been breaking world trade laws for about 10 years now and NO-ONE has done anythign about it (region locking is against trade laws as it restricts trade)
This is happening for lots of games , unfortantly until governments stop sucking c….. up to the entertainment industry and do there sodding job and stand up for the poeple they are meant to represent this will carry on happening, cause the money rules.
Not sure its a square enix own thing here, think its a steam code issue with retail games.
Also as i worked in retial I must say it is assumed that if you are buying a UK game you have a UK account, this woudl be accurate for 99% of consumors and would also confuse said 99% if you started asking em questions :/ This same thing happened with WOW Burning crusade (i know, had to refuse a refund because a guy got a UK version of the expansion but his account was US) , UK games would not register on US accounts, another exmaple of blizzard trend setting!
17/08/2011 at 12:49 drewski says:
“World trade law” is only worth what a country is willing to go to the WTO over, I’m afraid. And nobody in power cares about the entertainment industry region locking product – in fact, politicians generally overwhelmingly support it because it “protects local jobs”.
17/08/2011 at 14:49 somnolentsurfer says:
I’d specifically mention the price differential in any letters you write. It’s normal (and right) for different shops to charge different prices for the same thing in different places around the EU. Fixing a price in one area at a higher level than another is interfering with the market.
17/08/2011 at 10:27 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
You’ll apparently be able to play the game in any language after activation through downloading a patch. Still a shame though.
17/08/2011 at 10:28 Tretiak says:
What about http://www.g2play.net/store/Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution-Steam-Key.html ?
17/08/2011 at 10:30 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
“The CD Key / Serial is sent as a scan of the original retail box. This proves your 100% ownership of the product in any case. The scan is sent by email as well as kept in your orders archive so you can return to it anytime in the future. “
17/08/2011 at 10:38 Delusibeta says:
In other words, most likely region-locked.
17/08/2011 at 10:45 Cinerama says:
What i found on the forums :
” Again to be clear, only the russian and UK (english) steam codes for box copies are region locked, and ALL languages are available to ALL users once activated (may require language pack download if language is not on the disc version purchased)”
So the asian version, which we buyers from g2play will get, should be regionfree
17/08/2011 at 10:33 Unrein says:
So that’s why they were selling the strangely named “Nordic Edition” in Finland.
Oh, and fuck Square Enix.
17/08/2011 at 10:33 Lambchops says:
What a shame.
Not that I’d be particularly fussed about activating on Steam or getting the fancy shmancey augmented edition anyway (I bought the bog standard edition for 25 quid and I assume non UK dwelling Europeans who are more concerned with price can happily do the same) but it’s the principle of the thing. If someone wants all those extraneous gubbins they should be able to get them without being forced to pay an extra 5 quid or so.
17/08/2011 at 10:34 Nova says:
Right… globalization is good for everyone, eh?
Just canceled my UK preorder. I would have paid 25,66€. If I preorder it from the local Amazon -> 45,90€.
Well anyway, thanks Lewie.
17/08/2011 at 12:52 drewski says:
Umm…this is basically the opposite of globalisation.
17/08/2011 at 13:24 Prime says:
@Drewski – read the comment again with your irony/sarcasm sensors on this time. You should see his meaning.
17/08/2011 at 13:39 drewski says:
Oh, I get his meaning fine. He’s just being silly. Globalisation, in this context, *would* be good for everyone – it’s the raising of artificial trade barriers that is causing this.
17/08/2011 at 10:37 kearneybobs says:
As another person from Ireland who regularly buys games from the UK, I an rightly pissed off about this. Surely they could have told us earlier about this. No?
17/08/2011 at 10:38 mana says:
Double f*ck off to SE for pulling more dickish moves. As a Brit living abroad, but who buys games from UK stores and gets friends to send keys, I am so sick of all the region locking, time delayed releases per region etc. Even if I buy a UK game and activate it on my UK steam account, often Steam will lock it until the localised version is out. WHY?! Angry internet man rage! Wish Steam would just abolish it’s whole region locking system.
Anyway, I cancelled my preorder out of principle, and may only think about picking it up in the future when it is 10quid. A big feck you to all publisher that carry on this idiotic practise. Can’t we get some traction on this “no oceans” campaign?
17/08/2011 at 10:40 Stevostin says:
Square Enix is playing by the rules they are given. It’s never a crime to play by the rule at your best interest and it neither make sense nor bring anything to blame anyone to do so IMHO. It is a crime, thus, to prevent the rules to be changed for the greater goods – and it’s unhealthy for any citizen not to pay attention to the constant evolutions of rules.
So in that case the question is whether UK policy of letting a UK production unit become an “another country that is cheaper” production unit sell at the same taxe rates on UK soil before and after is something that shall be accepted or refused by UK citizens. (of course, it extends outside of UK and Eidos). But if you’re all in the “no rule no state” line, you have what you asked here.
17/08/2011 at 10:41 Schadenfreude says:
They seem to have bundled Russia & Poland into the same region looking at that thread so they’ve turned the single EU Region into:
UK
Poland+Russia
All of the EU except UK & Poland.
Which seems to be illegal. Apple tried something similar and got put back in their place pretty sharpish. I suppose I’ll have to either VPN the activation or crack it but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. You know they’re gonna do the same thing to Batman: Arkham City :/
17/08/2011 at 10:42 FieldOfTheBattle says:
Why is UK version locked? I’m not gona support this kind of bullshit with my money, preorder canceled. Good job Square you make the experience for paying customers as miserable as possible and then you whine about piracy. And fuck Steam for allowing this shit, this is not how digital distribution should be, I hope people pirate it to hell and back I know I will.
17/08/2011 at 11:11 Squirrelfanatic says:
… and thus be contributing to what was the problem of stupid DRM “protections” in the first place. Why don’t you just send an email to SE or post on their forums and tell them directly about the issue? You can always pick up the game at a cheaper price later on or get it gifted to you, if need be.
Pirating out of protest doesn’t help anybody.
17/08/2011 at 10:42 Dr I am a Doctor says:
I live in Poland and I preordered a steam key from some shady guy on local ebay equivalent, and now I don’t even know if I’m fucked!
17/08/2011 at 10:42 razzafazza says:
what a shame.
keeping my augmented edition pre-order though. when i pre-ordered in april there wasnt any info on region lock and since i never read rockpapershotgun or other sites where this info might have been broadcasted i wouldnt know about the whole region lock thing , demand a working code or a full return of my money or raise them hell.
hoping the whole legal mumbo jumbo also turns the whole thing against square enix, not only so i can enjoy the game (if not, f… it, there are more good games comming out and my time is limited anyhow, see you at bargain bin then Deus Ex… ) but also to put off different publishers from trying this crap in the future
17/08/2011 at 10:42 BreadBitten says:
Okay so I live in the far off country of ‘Bangladesh’, which version of the game Am I supposed to be playing?
17/08/2011 at 11:04 Raiyan 1.0 says:
Deshi manush! :D
Never thought I would see one ‘ere!
17/08/2011 at 11:14 BreadBitten says:
Yeah pretty unlikely, I know.
I’d still like to know which edition of the game we are supposed to get since this is the last multiplatform title I would even think of buying for my console…
17/08/2011 at 12:54 drewski says:
From what I gather, it’s only the three European versions which are region locked. Avoid them and you should be fine.
17/08/2011 at 14:31 BreadBitten says:
Drats, I was actually about have it ordered from the UK…
17/08/2011 at 10:44 kikito says:
The pirated version, on the other hand, will be region-free.
17/08/2011 at 11:05 Oozo says:
I know, we should not have to discuss this each and every time, but still:
Does the pirated version come with the box, or the all the trinkety extra mumbo jumbo that comes with one of the collector’s edition? If this is not what you are after, you are not really affected by this dickish move.
Edit: Oh, hadn’t seen Pinor’s post below that explains that yes, thanks to this move, you are indeed deprived of some of the game’s content, even if you buy it digitally. I still don’t think that this is a free pass to piracy (I mean, if you really wanted to pay for the game, go and do so, and download the missing level somewhere illegally, not the whole game). But it certainly adds to the stupidness of it all.
What a bloody shame.
17/08/2011 at 11:14 povu says:
Solution: Don’t cancel your useless region locked box with all the physical extras, and pirate the game? :P
17/08/2011 at 10:47 cmi says:
Ok, canceling my preorder with amazon.co.uk right now (I live in Germany).
And seriously (I’m old enough) I will cancel preordering at all and buy GOTY or something.
If some company thinks they can profit from globalization, but don’t allow their customers to do the same, they don’t deserve any better.
17/08/2011 at 10:48 Fox89 says:
Who the hell decides to announce this a week before release? I’m in the UK, getting the UK Augmented Edition so I am completely unaffected, but this is just ludicrous. OK, if they want to pull this kind of thing that’s their prerogative, but announce it a few months ahead of time! This gives people a) Time to forget about the rage it caused them and b) time to pre-order a copy they’ll actually be able to play.
I understand how region locking is good business, but I fail to see how screwing over a massive chunk of you pre-order market a week before release is.
17/08/2011 at 10:50 Aurel says:
Canceling the pre-order i had on amazon.uk, placed on the 6 December 2010 (really). And not buying the equivalent version on amazon.fr for fucking 60€.
Well played Square-Enix. Maybe in a few years on Steam sales, if the game is really as good as i hoped, but i no longer give a shit.
17/08/2011 at 10:50 Crimsoneer says:
HOW TO ACTIVATE + PLAY UK COPY IN THE REST OF EUROPE
Buy UK copy
Buy UK VPN – I keep a VPNinja account active at all times just in case I need it, it’s like £1 a month
Switch off Steam
Switch on VPN
Switch Steam back on
Activate game
Restart Steam, disable VPN
Success!
I suspect. This works for unlocking US games early, so I don’t see why it shouldn’t work for this.
17/08/2011 at 11:05 kearneybobs says:
Um, I think that can get your Steam account banned if you get caught.
17/08/2011 at 13:06 Dozer says:
1) Create new Steam account
2) Tunnel into the UK
3) Buy & activate Deus Ex on new Steam account
4) Tunnel out again
5) Use second account in Offline mode
Problem?
17/08/2011 at 13:44 bansama says:
“Um, I think that can get your Steam account banned if you get caught.”
Nope. As someone who has been at the receiving end of this **** for years, I can tell you now, Valve won’t even notice someone using a VPN for a minute to activate a game.
Bear in mind that this method will only allow you to activate it. It won’t allow you to get past regional time delays unless you’re prepared to keep the VPN connection running (or put your Steam account into offline mode) until the game is actually released in your region.
17/08/2011 at 10:50 Nallen says:
The only region my copy is locked to is my PELVIC REGION OHHH YEAAAAAH *THRUST*
17/08/2011 at 12:07 JackShandy says:
Stick with the prod.
17/08/2011 at 10:51 Xiyng says:
FIrst and foremost I’m going to hate Square Enix for this, next I’m going to hate Steam for enabling this. They’d have no way to do this in a reliable manner without Steam.
Yay for region-locking PC games!
Now I’m definitely not getting this game before I can get it for less than 5€ on a Steam sale.
17/08/2011 at 11:03 Gunrun says:
Yes, only steam out of all services in the world allows geoIP location. Certainly no other game connects to the internet to see if it’s launch day in the country you are in.
17/08/2011 at 10:54 Zeewolf says:
Fucking hell, this ruined my day. And it’s only the beginning, I can guarantee that.
Goodbye Play.com?
17/08/2011 at 10:58 ChainsawHands says:
What a shame.
17/08/2011 at 10:58 HelderPinto says:
What is this I can’t even…. I had to cancel my pre order from amazon! :((
17/08/2011 at 10:59 Zarunil says:
PC gamers get shafted yet again. I’m skipping this release.
17/08/2011 at 10:59 Horza says:
So that’s what the “Nordic Edition” on the name meant.
17/08/2011 at 11:00 povu says:
Seriously, FUCK THIS. I had the augmented edition pre-ordered from amazon.co.uk since December 2010, and now I’m going to have to cancel it because I live in The Netherlands. And pay 20 euros more for a copy here.
17/08/2011 at 11:00 Phinor says:
Might be worth mentioning that the digital copies, even the Augmented versions have exactly zero in-game pre-order bonuses unless you buy from Impulse. Why Impulse has those bonuses? Well it’s owned by Gamestop who happen to like having monopoly over pre-order bonuses. If you ask me, this behaviour will only increase now that Gamestop is getting into the digital market.
Here’s the twist: Deus Ex is only available to North America in Impulse. So they have effectively blocked out most of the world out of these bonuses.
I wouldn’t mind some stupid credit bonus but there’s an actual mission that was stripped from the game and that mission is now completely unavailable to most people. Ultimately, the easiest way to enjoy the full experience of Deus Ex:HR is now via piracy.
It’s a nice little mess Square Enix have managed to stir up at the last moment. Now all we need is a Ubisoft-style 2 month delay for the PC version.
17/08/2011 at 12:23 Kompi says:
The twist actually twists even further – some weeks ago, Human Revolution actually wasn’t region limited on impulse. In fact, it goes even further than that with how at least some European countries which hadn’t adopted the Euro (myself in Sweden and a friend of mine in Norway) were offered the USD prices. I was only asked to pay some $59.99 (~41.5€) for the Augmented Edition, while another friend of mine in Finland (which has adopted the Euro) was shown the European price tag which was some 10-20€ higher!
Admittedly, now when they’ve limited the regions you can order it from I’m more than a little curious now what exactly will come of my own pre-order – whether it’ll be perfectly fine, somehow magically transform into a region-locked retail key or they’ll cancel it altogether.
17/08/2011 at 11:04 Bluerps says:
Das ist ja zum Kotzen!
That’s a german idiom expressing extreme displeasure with the situation. I live in Germany, but I order every boxed game I play in the UK. Not only is that much cheaper, but I can also avoid censorship issues and shoddy translations that way.
At least, playing the game in English is still possible…
17/08/2011 at 11:06 oceanclub says:
Eido/Square Enix can’t even keep their own story straight. A moderator is claiming that people should have known about the region locking (yes, even between UK and “rest of EU”) and points people at the following article:
http://forums.eidosgames.com/showpost.php?p=1530984&postcount=1
But _that_ says:
“1) PC games are region free, so wherever you get it from it’ll work. However, one thing we do know is that the US augmented edition does not come with all the pre-order content, but the European one does. Try ordering from game.co.uk, they should ship to your location and that way you’ll get all the content.
2) Not yet confirmed either way, but at a guess it’ll probably be available on store shelves too.
3) You can pre-order on Steam, but no word on whether that gives you all or any of the pre-order content.”
!!!
P.
17/08/2011 at 11:06 Gunrun says:
Oh great well here is the excuse all the pirates need for why they’re stealing the game, not that they were going to pay for it anyway, but they now don’t have to revert to the weak “I just don’t think it’s that good” excuse or “I’ll buy it if I like it (when its on $5 sale)”
17/08/2011 at 11:06 mihor_fego says:
Ah.. and as always, “rest of Europe” gets fucked. They have some really twisted view of what free global market means. Unless they are against it and want regional pricing to reflect local economies, in which case it’s even worse, having the game cost the same across countries with 1:3 salary ratios.
I guess it could be worse, I couldn’t order an authenticator from Blizzard for Greece not being in Europe…
17/08/2011 at 11:06 Kaira- says:
Because I’m horribly lazy man, I’m just going to copy-paste myself from the forums.
My choice of not pre-ordering Human Revolution seems to be getting more backed up as the time gets closer to the release. First Steamworks, and now this? Good game it may be, but I’ll wait for it to hit some 10-15€ price range before picking it up. Region locking on this age and day is just bollocks, especially on PC. I’m just wondering what part Steam plays in this…
17/08/2011 at 13:26 Prime says:
I hear ya. It’s getting so that pre-ordering from any big publisher is just asking for trouble. I’ll be waiting for the price to drop as well.
17/08/2011 at 11:10 Naekh says:
Here we go the answer from the EIDOS support :
Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting the Square Enix Support Centre.
We are sorry to inform you that UK copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution will only work for customer with a UK Steam account.
There is an English export available for European countries that will work with EU Steam account.
We suggest contacting retailer as soon as you can in order to obtain more information about your purchase and arrange cancellation and/or refund.
Kind Regards,
The SQUARE ENIX Technical Support Team.
The exact screw you I was expecting.
17/08/2011 at 11:11 Schadenfreude says:
The mods over there be trolling. He pointed everyone to a specific Q+A thread saying that the region locking had been known of all along, when the thread in fact states categorically that the PC versions would be region free. He then told us not to trust the thread.
http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=115011
The advice in the thread was in response to a question about the Xbox version.
17/08/2011 at 11:46 timmyvos says:
Cause everyone who lives outside of the UK and pre-ordered it there only makes up about 0.01% right? That’s practically no one. Except, as all these comments suggest there actually quite a lot of people who pre-order in the UK because of all those artificial price differences and now they’re getting shafted.
17/08/2011 at 11:12 DazedByTheHaze says:
Heyho Heyho now I pirate this shit ho…
No really, wasn’t interested, then you guy’s here at RPS hyped it for me and now Eidos trumps all over this PR work. Ok then, Eidos wants me interested, but not paying them… not a problemo.
Edit: What a sca…shame.
17/08/2011 at 20:43 KenTWOu says:
Next time don’t whine about consolisation and casualisation of the gaming Industry.
17/08/2011 at 11:12 lijenstina says:
If there was less stupid divisions like this in humanity We could now have DE3 Martian and Moon editions. Maybe even an Alpha Centauri edition. That last one would have be released a couple of decades later though.
17/08/2011 at 11:12 JackDandy says:
What a shame.
17/08/2011 at 11:14 Njordsk says:
As I preordered on D2D uk and being in france I wonder how it will work…
17/08/2011 at 13:13 Dozer says:
Misread that as “preordered on D2D while being in a trance”
17/08/2011 at 11:15 oceanclub says:
Has anyone from RPS run this by an EU consumer law lawyer? I really cannot see how the UK-”rest of EU” region divide cannot be legal. In the context of the EU, we have a situation where people in an Irish border town can’t play a game they’ve bought from the other side of the town that may be UK region locked.
P.
17/08/2011 at 11:16 aego says:
Maybe there’s a hidden logic to this regional pricing nonsense, perhaps deals with various local distributors in each country? Take Romania, for example, the price here is less than 18 euros (RON 75) for a digital standard edition at one reseller (shop.ComputerGames.ro), while I preordered my boxed copy at another store for about 16.6 euros (the standard edition plus the Explosive Mission Pack).
But since the game is a steamworks title, I guess anyone in Europe* can purchase the game online here and activate it in their country, so maybe that’s not very good logic…
*Except UK and Russia apparently.
17/08/2011 at 11:17 Lenderz says:
I have to say this probably has something to do with different countries draconian censorship methods. A similar situation happened with L4D2, with me gifting a Reich living friend of mine a copy of L4D2 on steam, but his copy still being censored. This lead to some interesting things happening when we were playing together, such as me beating off (tee hee) a body armoured zombie swat guy repeatedly which had me cornered, and my German friend not actually seeing the zombie, because that model wasn’t in the censored version (something about shooting at authority figures not being allowed).
Its about time the world, and ze Germans grew up and stopped treating gamers like children, and allowed blood etc. I realise its because they’re scared as a society they might get blood thirsty and invade Poland again, but these days Germany is pretty chill, and its simply a step too far.
17/08/2011 at 12:59 drewski says:
It doesn’t have anything to do with that, it’s just naked greed.
17/08/2011 at 11:17 Unaco says:
I’m in UK, so doesn’t really affect me… Except now knowing they pay a couple hundred Roubles in Russia for it, why can’t we all pay the Russian price for every game?… I’m sure they have their reasons for it. I’m sure everyone will end up buying the game anyway. This isn’t an excuse for Piracy. White Horses are actually born close to black. Regional pricing happens with most things. We’re hardly talking a fortune here. If you want to pay UK prices, move to the UK I guess.
Really looking forward to this one… wasn’t that positive about it at first, but everything I’ve heard about it has been encouraging.
17/08/2011 at 13:27 Dozer says:
The problem is this. The creators make products so they can sell them for money. If UK buyers can afford and are happy to pay £25 for something, but Russian buyers can only afford £10 (equivalent) because their wages are lower, the sellers are best off selling to the UK at £25 and to Russia at £10.
But if the UK buyers can just get the £10 Russian version, and the seller can’t do anything to stop this, the seller will just start charging £25 in Russia too, because the lost sales to poor Russians are less than the lost revenue from UK import-buyers.
This is why drugs companies don’t sell life-saving medicine at cost price to AIDs victims in Africa.
That said, it seems completely insane that the Eurozone price is higher than the UK price. I can’t figure that one out – unless continental Europeans are willing to accept a higher price for entertainment products than islanders for some cultural reason.
17/08/2011 at 14:03 diamondmx says:
“This is why drugs companies don’t sell life-saving medicine at cost price to AIDs victims in Africa.”
They’re kindhearted souls, just wanting to help people – but us evil consumers won’t *let* them!
Just what drugs do you take?
17/08/2011 at 11:18 SaVi says:
I buy my games in the UK if there is a danger for censorship (Scheiss Deutschland). Not that Square Enix lost the chance to ever see my money anyway with this jerkass move. I’ll get it if it cost’s no more than a happy meal.
17/08/2011 at 11:18 LuNatic says:
Well, that makes my decision a lot easier. So long Squeenix, and thanks for nothing.
17/08/2011 at 11:20 theleif says:
Shame on you.
17/08/2011 at 11:20 icedon says:
So, as i live in germany, i searched for Deus Ex Human Revolution on Impulse.
Gues what: “Sorry: this item is not available in your region”
Fuck Region Locks! Fuck Sucker Enix!
So, what to do now? Any idea on how http://www.greenmangaming.com works?
Don
17/08/2011 at 11:46 Gunrun says:
They’re region free keys, so says their support guys. Should be fine.
17/08/2011 at 11:21 Teddy Leach says:
What a shame.
I’m still not cancelling my pre-order though.
17/08/2011 at 11:25 Fredrik Sellevold says:
What a sham!
17/08/2011 at 11:26 sulix says:
what a rotten way to lie
17/08/2011 at 11:28 Carra says:
If I really want to have a game on release date I order it from the UK as it’s always a lot cheaper.
To give you an idea:
-Deus Ex from play.com: €35
-Deus Ex from a local, Belgian retailer (freerecordshop.be): €45
This just means that it will now have to wait until it’s in a €10 steam deal.
17/08/2011 at 11:28 Binho says:
Wow, that’s ridiculous. Squeenix/Ubisoft really don’t like their costumers, do they?
On the other hand, I’ve never really understood the need to pre-order a game before. Especially not the more expensive collector’s editions.
If you haven’t played it enough to know if it’s good, why would you want to spend close to 100 euros on it? For a map or a plastic figurine?
I rarely ever buy games at launch anymore. Empire at War (What an awful game) and Dragon Age: Origins burned me for good. Between those two, it’s probably a good 70 pounds I could have used to buy a dozen books off of amazon instead. I always wait till prices are halfed now, or buy pre-owned versions.
That, or if it’s a game that everyone raves about that I wouldn’t care for or buy normally, I either a.) borrow from a friend, b.) pirate it, or, more often now c.) watch a Let’s Play of it.
On the other hand, if Steam had a system whereby you could rent a game for 5 pounds a month, and then it would delete it off your hard drive after that, I’d be all for it.
17/08/2011 at 11:40 Fox89 says:
That’s good. Because Developers who only make good games, and not great games, don’t deserve your money.
I agree, why should you pay THEM any money for the games they spent millions developing? Much better just to buy it all preowned, that way you ensure the retailers make loads of money whilst keeping it out of the hands of the greedy publisher who invested in making it.
17/08/2011 at 14:55 Binho says:
Fox89, you must be one of those selective readers.
I said I only buy games which *I* think are good. Just because some bloke on the internet thinks a game is good, doesn’t mean *I* will. Like I said, both Empire at War and Dragon Age: Origins where highly recommended Day 1 buys which I felt weren’t worth what I payed for them.
Why should I pay £30+ on buying something which I have no idea is good?! And how is it my fault that they are spending millions on games? That was their decision. They should make more economic games if that is a problem.
Nobody buys a DVD of a movie before it’s released in Cinema’s (In fact, you can’t!). It’s generally only AFTER you’ve seen a movie at the cinema for £5/6 pounds that you make the decision to shell out the extra £15 on the DVD. If it’s bad, well, you’ve only lost £5/6.
Same goes for buying cars. You don’t buy a 2nd hand car blindly on E-bay. You first go ‘kick the tyres’, and check out everything is alright and is as advertised.
I bought Minecraft and Mount and Blade (both the original and Warband) full price after playing their extensive and representative free trials and seeing that they were games I enjoyed. I bought Mass Effect 1 twice, neither of them pre-owned, because I enjoyed the complete playthrough me and my friend did together on his X-box before the PC version came out.
On the same level, all MMO’s give you a 2-4 week free trial before you have to decide wether it is worth your money. This same system is the whole point of Microtransaction and Free-To-Play systems – though I don’t agree with their use in online games where paying gives you a competitive advantage.
How come AAA games can get away with not being competitively priced, often buggy, and with so many restrictions? *Oh yeah, because people buy them regardless.* How many people here just went “F*** you ubisoft!!!”, and then just pre-ordered the more expensive local version anyways?
/rant
17/08/2011 at 11:32 D4t4v4mP says:
So does anyone know if the key from Shopto.net is considered digital or boxed? I mean do they open the package and send me the UK retail key or do they sell digital codes that can be activated through steam?
17/08/2011 at 11:33 neolith says:
So… having always bad luck, I’d have to play a translated, cut version with green blood, because I live in Germany?
Preorder cancelled.
Fuckers.
17/08/2011 at 11:39 Unaco says:
You could have just got a Digital version. But, if you want to immediately jump on the angry train, go ahead.
17/08/2011 at 11:42 Fox89 says:
Good point. This is a golden opportunity for digital distribution services that aren’t Steam to slash their prices and win over a huge chunk of customers.
17/08/2011 at 12:27 neolith says:
@Unaco: You mean like the digital version of L4D? The one that is cut in my country?
17/08/2011 at 12:51 RegisteredUser says:
1. Aquire friend in Netherlands or anywhere else that isn’t censored.
2. Have him gift the game to you.
3. Repay him via free SEPA wire.
4. Many many uncensored profits.
I know for sure that this would have also gotten you an uncensored L4D2 in Germany.
17/08/2011 at 11:34 Gundrea says:
I got an e-mail response with boilerplate about how I should contact my retailer about how to ensure I get the right product for my region.
This is after I specifically asked for their assistance in finding a retailer that could offer me the collectors edition for my region. So apparently they’re not interested in helping me buy their product!
Preorder cancelled.
17/08/2011 at 11:41 rocketman71 says:
“What possible motivation could Square-Enix?”
Easy. They’re publishers, and thus, greedy bastards. And idiots.
Edit: also, if you’ve preordered, please post a complain to the European Commision. Let’s finish this bullshit and the bastards that push it on us to squeeze yet more € out of us.
17/08/2011 at 11:45 Droniac says:
Well then, that’s the end of my Amazon UK preorder.
Given how the local prices are ridiculous, that means we’ll have to settle for a digital Augmented Edition from Direct2Drive. The only digital distribution site with somewhat reasonable prices on new games. It’s still 8 euro over the Amazon price (30 euro), but given how the local (Dutch) prices at reliable shops are 62 euro when the standard edition can be found for 30 euro… yeah, that’s not going to happen.
Besides, a local copy of the game would result in translated crap all over the place. No Dutch gamer wants a localized version and I have no idea why publishers continue to do this sort of thing. The only feedback they’ve ever gotten from it has been: please cut the crap and give us a proper English version. Every Dutch localized game / box / manual to date has been nothing but annoying and wildly inaccurate. Google Translate would do a better job. The only thing Dutch localizations are good for is a quick laugh, and then a ritual burning / smashing on the altar of Notranslatticus, the God of proper games.
17/08/2011 at 11:52 Cinerama says:
I am also dutch and i am still confident that the version at http://www.g2play.net/store/Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution-Steam-Key.html will be regionfree.
As square eenix stated
“” Again to be clear, only the russian and UK (english) steam codes for box copies are region locked, and ALL languages are available to ALL users once activated (may require language pack download if language is not on the disc version purchased)”
The asian steamcodes should be region free, and you would still have english VO and text
Only downside for you would be it’s not the augemented edition
17/08/2011 at 12:30 Goomich says:
According to SE once game is registered on Steam, you should be able to download any language version you want.
17/08/2011 at 11:48 Unaco says:
Will this also mean an end to the Region locking of RPS competitions? Take the first step RPS… No Oceans on the ‘Net!
17/08/2011 at 11:52 Naekh says:
@Droniac : Ja maar Nederlands is niet makkelijk toch :p
I live in Amsterdam and the prices are ridiculous here as you say. So I’ll stick with my UK order and VPN it will be.
17/08/2011 at 11:55 Skeletor68 says:
This is just reminding me of the recent news on Diablo 3. I’m genuinely excited for a game, prepared to hand over the money on release and then this…
We want to buy your game. Stop f*cking us!
17/08/2011 at 12:05 olemars says:
Augmented edition costs 68€ retail here. Wonderful. 10 less for the Nordic edition, whatever that is.
What a shame.
17/08/2011 at 12:24 Schadenfreude says:
Augmented edition: €54 on Steam. Imported from Game.co.uk (+p&p), €37. Obviously locking people out of exporting from the UK will potentially make them huge money.
Doesn’t change the fact that they’re dicks and I won’t be playing their game.
17/08/2011 at 12:32 Goomich says:
Steam’s Augmented Edition doesn’t have any in game goodies, only soundtrack, art book etc.
17/08/2011 at 12:35 Schadenfreude says:
So that’s an additional €17 for less stuff. Screw ‘em.
My girlfriend’s work VPN connects through the UK, might see if I can activate through that. Otherwise it’s cancellation time.
17/08/2011 at 15:39 Theory says:
I’m torn. Buying the augmented edition for £25 is a good deal, but it’s only a good deal because of the fucked-over gamers of the continent cancelling their pre-orders en masse. I don’t want to profit from other people’s misery.
But on the other hand, buying it cheap means that SE get the least amount of my money possible (and I don’t have to worry them fucking over the devs too since it’s an internal studio).
Edit: reverse reply fail! Also, the augmented edition has been removed from Amazon since I started typing so it looks like I won’t have to make this choice just yet.
17/08/2011 at 16:01 Theory says:
More cancelled pre-orders, and this time I went for it. The great irony: “1 item will be delivered to [me] from Amazon EU Sàrl”.
I don’t even remember the last time I bought a game on a disc. That’s how crazy this is.
17/08/2011 at 12:09 MajorManiac says:
What a….mess.
17/08/2011 at 12:10 andytt66 says:
On the plus side.. people cancelling preorders means the PC augmented edition is now available on amazon.co.uk for 25 quid.
Just sayin’.
17/08/2011 at 12:37 cmi says:
Fun thing: my AE preorder from march also says ~25gbp (+ ~10gbp for s&p&taxes =~40eur)
Fun thing: d2d says 39gbp for AE with PDF (yay) artbook and stuff
Fun thing: amazon.de says 54,90eur for “limited edition” (same content as AE)
Fun thing: I say “No thank you”
17/08/2011 at 14:48 Spork says:
I ordered the augmented edition for £25 a few weeks ago, but when I checked today it was listed as ‘unavailable for PC’. Then it reappeared, then went to ‘notify when in stock’, then disappeared again.
I’ve emailed Amazon but I’m thinking about getting the standard version instead, sick of them faffing around.
17/08/2011 at 17:55 andytt66 says:
Spork: yeah, AE stock on amazon is incredibly limited. They’d sold out last week, but since they’ve had a spate of cancelled pre-orders in the last 24 hours…
Currently in stock at the moment (for example). Might not stay that way for long.
And yes, I do feel a bit bad at cancelling my “limited edition” and getting the AE for less because of the misfortune of others.
17/08/2011 at 12:10 Nick says:
Buy it wherever, crack it, download the preorder content.
18/08/2011 at 11:34 Trukkle says:
Will be doing this, but as it uses steamworks I’m worried it’ll bugger up my Steam account :/
17/08/2011 at 12:11 oceanclub says:
I just got a callback from Amazon.co.uk and they obviously haven’t a clue about this. They claim the game will work fine. I told them they really need to investigate it further, so the support person said she’d contact the relevant department about it.
P.
17/08/2011 at 12:20 cmi says:
They added a note about this some minutes ago. I wonder if they inform the customers which preordered.
17/08/2011 at 12:26 Gundrea says:
Live from amazon.co.uk
Region Lock
Please note: Deus Ex on PC is region-locked to the UK only. If you are shopping from outside of the UK, please order the game from your local retailer to ensure it works on your PC.
There’s something wrong when a retailer has to tell you not to buy from them,
17/08/2011 at 13:39 Dozer says:
Perhaps Squeenix has blindsided Amazon, and Amazon is just as annoyed as the community?
Think about it: in the Beginning, Amazon created the Internet. Amazon is in the Internet and the Internet is in Amazon. So, the Angry Internet Men must also be in Amazon. I’d like to see Amazon mobilise over this. If Amazon’s been told (or assumed) there is no region-locking and went on to sell a bunch of useless UK licences to Europeans, that’s a very embarrassing situation for a retailer to be in. They probably can’t openly say “Sorry for selling you an unusable preorder, it’s all Squeenix’s fault for only telling us one week in advance it wouldn’t work” to all the customers and certainly won’t be happy about all the people asking for refunds.
17/08/2011 at 13:49 olemars says:
Amazon UK is probably royally shafted over this. Amazon UK is the amazon branch for all the countries in europe that don’t speak german, french or italian. They’re going to have to refund a lot of preorders, plus they probably reserved a lot more copies than needed internally in the UK since they generally ship a lot to other countries.
17/08/2011 at 14:17 TillEulenspiegel says:
I believe Amazon doesn’t actually charge for preorders until they’re ready to ship. So the only ones really screwed are the would-be customers.
17/08/2011 at 15:53 Sheng-ji says:
Also I doubt the games actually ship from an amazon owned warehouse, more likely directly from the distributors. All amazon need to do is reduce their reserve with the distributor, who is the one to get shafted
17/08/2011 at 16:11 TeraTelnet says:
Er, Amazon has warehouses full of stock to deliver. Here’s an article on one:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-560113/Online-retailer-Amazon-opens-largest-warehouse-Britain–size-football-pitches.html
I really don’t think they rely on the distributor to send stock to their customers. What happens if you use Super Saver to bundle several items in one delivery, for example?
17/08/2011 at 12:11 retromixtv says:
‘the fuk?? Finally registered to post my anger at squeenix idiocy. There.
Like many i’m on mainland eu and prefer my games in physical copies and english, especially when stupid edition bonuses are applied by publishers… Ok this time i went all out for a ce version, just because of DE nostalgia, fuck square dix now. Cancelled, going to wait for sale prices, meanwhile will enjoy piracy.
17/08/2011 at 12:16 JohnH says:
For once I’m in luck because I have zero interest in this game. I still want to say that this is a truly boneheaded move by Square.
17/08/2011 at 12:20 yhalothar says:
I almost bought a US version of the game from GreenGamer the other day, dodged a bullet there!
I’ll probably pirate it at launch and buy it later when it’s cheaper.
17/08/2011 at 12:23 Avenger says:
This was a dream
Really. I remember dreaming about someone talking about a “region-locked PC game” and I was laughing so hard, telling him how stupid he sounds since it was technically impossible to have a region lock on a PC game…
How does something like this happen? Why is everybody going batshit bananas?
17/08/2011 at 13:04 drewski says:
Anyone who thought region locking wasn’t coming to PC was willfully naive.
17/08/2011 at 21:12 KenTWOu says:
You know what! “Region-locked PC game” is an everyday occurrence in Russia.
18/08/2011 at 11:40 Dominic White says:
@drewski The irony being that region locking on consoles is on the way out. Sony seem to have made good money on their ‘no region locking’ policies with the PS3 and PSP, and seem likely to continue this.
Of course, Microsoft, owner of most of our gaming operating systems, have not only got region locks on the 360, but IP checks so that you can’t work your way around them, and ban folks who have the nerve to try and bypass these systems.
17/08/2011 at 12:26 Naekh says:
Would be fun if now I get my preorder cancelled by amazon and I’m left out cold without the possibility to even purchase my Augmented edition… And strangely enough I can see that coming.
17/08/2011 at 12:34 Goomich says:
+1 cancelled Amazon.co.uk preorder and wait for next Steam sale. Probably Amazon should sue SE for that. :)
Anyway, I’ll have more money to support Nexus 2, which is a good thing.
17/08/2011 at 12:42 andromedius says:
A shame Square Enix hasn’t region-locked its very own idiocy…
17/08/2011 at 12:49 RegisteredUser says:
They obviously wish to openly endorse and encourage Piracy.
17/08/2011 at 12:50 retromixtv says:
….redundant
17/08/2011 at 12:51 Prosper0_cz says:
Jules: Does the customer look like a bitch?
Sqeenix: What?
[Jules shoots Sqeenix in shoulder]
Jules: DOES HE LOOK LIKE A BITCH?
Sqeenix: No!
Jules: Then why you try to fuck him like a bitch, Sqeenix?
Sqeenix: I didn’t.
Jules: Yes you did. Yes you did, Sqeenix. You tried to fuck him. And the customer…
Sqeenix: Ok, ok, you are right. And i didnt just try, I am fucking him in the ASS right now, that gullible poor sod. I am this bitch’s pimp and I’ll squeeze all the money I can…
17/08/2011 at 12:53 jack4cc says:
Well, fuck you, squenix, I’ll just go the easiest route and pirate it if I can’t activate my preordered version. I really, really tried to buy the damn game this time, but .. well. I guess I did learn my lesson.
17/08/2011 at 16:36 Lenderz says:
Terrible excuse, piracy helps nobody.
17/08/2011 at 19:43 jack4cc says:
Terrible excuse ? I bought the damn game, i paid money for it, just like every other legit customer ! Not being able to use the version i bought is not going to stop me from playing it.
17/08/2011 at 12:54 andromedius says:
A shame Square Enix hasn’t region-locked its very own idiocy….
17/08/2011 at 12:56 D4t4v4mP says:
Does anyone know if g2play is legit? I remember reading something about it not being a verified steam key provider, by a mod in a steam thread. Has anyone ordered steam games from them before? Impressions? I’ve got 100+ games in my account and i would hate it if it got banned.
17/08/2011 at 17:40 7rigger says:
@D4t4v4mP
I’ve only got one game from g2play, a steam activated copy of Napoleon TW and it still works fine with no bans to my account.
Mind you, that game was an exchange for the copy of Blood Bowl that I had been locked out of by the publisher (They blacklisted my serial as it was not a UK copy – I had bought before Blood Bowl’s release in the UK)
So, basically, Steam and G2play are both cool (G2play exchanged the key over a year after I had bought it, before simply alowing me to choose a new game) but the publishers are the ones calling the shots on this. I don’t see why steam would ban your account, but sqeeenix may drop pressure on steam
17/08/2011 at 12:56 Conor says:
What a shame.
17/08/2011 at 13:21 SavageD says:
Another pre-order cancelled here too then. F#@k you Square, f#@k you very much.
17/08/2011 at 13:24 Robin says:
Quoting someone else words:
”
This is a clearly an attempt by S-E to restrict competition inside Europe and force people to buy a more expensive version of the game locally. Which I’m pretty sure is illegal.
I’m sending an email to the European Comission for them to further investigate. Feel free to contact them as well if you’re concerned.
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/consumers/contacts_en.html
”
I sent my email. You should do the same. Let’s flood the with complaints, to stop this new “smart idea” immediately.
17/08/2011 at 13:29 Robin says:
Quote from NeoGAF:
<>
I did. Let’s flood the Commission with emails, to stop this new “smart idea” immediately.
17/08/2011 at 13:34 oceanclub says:
From a chat on the Irish forum boards.ie, noone is even certain that any copy bought in Ireland can be played here. Most Irish games retail is through UK companies such as HMV and Game; presumably their editions here come from UK warehouses. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of region locking that distinguishes between the UK and Ireland so it’s quite possible a game bought here might not actually be playable. People have mailed for confirmation but so far have not received any feedback.
P.
17/08/2011 at 13:38 Talorc says:
Dear Square Enix –
I was going to give you near $50 of my hard earned on release. Apparently you now want $70 because i live in Australia.
Die in a Fucking Fire.
Now I’ll buy your game when it is $5 in two years time, maybe.
Love, resident of Australia.
17/08/2011 at 13:44 Talorc says:
http://www.square-enix.com/eng/company/philosophy.html
To spread happiness across the globe by providing unforgettable experiences
“Globe” in this case meaning so long as we cant screw you for higher price.
17/08/2011 at 18:13 propolis says:
Warning: Happiness may be region locked. Please consult your local retailer before buying hapinness.
17/08/2011 at 13:50 Velvetmeds says:
What a shame
that the game will get pirated to hell thanks to people’s stubborness and rebel without a cause attitude instead of paying the quite reasonable vouchered price on GMG which will result in one of the best games in years not selling well and no other publishers or devs or think about it or follow it’s direction and the next DE will be some kind of COD clone or something.
What a shame.
17/08/2011 at 19:03 Daiz says:
Yes, clearly people are only after getting the game for cheap, and do not care about these practically UK-exclusive by now special editions that they have been locked out of on a week’s notice from launch. Did you ever stop to consider the fact that some people still like to have physical copies for games that they really like, or even some sort of special editions? I could just cancel my Augmented Edition pre-order and order a digital copy from GMG, but it wouldn’t change the impact of the fact that I wouldn’t get a physical copy or the artbook that comes with the AE.
17/08/2011 at 13:51 Naekh says:
I think that Square-Enix will be beloved everywhere in Europe with that. For my side, never again. They can publish the most awesome game ever I won’t give them a damn cent until the apologize and not repeat it again.
17/08/2011 at 13:57 oceanclub says:
Most Irish retailers are actually Irish branches of UK or US retailers with UK warehousing: HMV, Gamestop, Game, etc.
So, the Irish stores get their stock from the UK. Which I presume is the UK retail version.
Which it seems will not work in Ireland.
Doh.
P.
17/08/2011 at 13:59 Number47 says:
Cancelled my preorder at Amazon UK, but found that the Nordic Edition from elgiganten.dk has the extra mission. From their website:
(Ud over spillet, omfatter den nordiske udgave:
• Den eksplosive Mission Pack præsenterer en helt ny mission med en speciel cameo appearance fra en af de oprindelige DEUX EX karakterer, plus den automatiske unlock enhed; M-28 Utility fjernbetjeningsdetoneret (UR-DED) og Linebacker G-87 granatkaster.
• Den taktiske våbenpakke indeholder Huntsman Silverback Double-Barrel Shotgun, 10.000 ekstra point til at købe eller opgradere våben, plus SERSR Langsværd Whisperhead snigskytteriffel.
Forudbestil den nordiske Edition og få den Eksplosive Mission Pack og taktiske våbenpakke helt fri for ekstra beregning! )
Translated by Google:
Besides the game, including the Nordic version:
• The explosive Mission Pack presents a completely new mission with a special cameo appearance from one of the original DEUX EX characters, plus the automatic unlocking device; M-28 Utility fjernbetjeningsdetoneret (UR DED) and Line Backer G-87 grenade launcher.
• The tactical weapons package includes Huntsman Silverback Double-Barrel Shotgun, 10,000 extra points to buy or upgrade weapons, plus SERSR Longswords Whisper Head sniper rifle.
Pre-Order the Nordic Edition and get the Explosive Mission Pack and tactical weapons package completely free of extra charge!
So it seams i am to play Deus Ex HR after all. I just feel sorry for those living in Germany.
17/08/2011 at 14:03 rebb says:
You gotta be shittin’ me.
I am not going to play this game in anything other than the english version, not the one localized for my region.
Which highly paid professional comes up with these brilliant ideas at Ubisoft ?
17/08/2011 at 16:33 Azhrarn says:
According to the Square forums you can set the game to any language, and it’ll download the appropriate pack for it through Steam, so you can enjoy the game in it’s natural language, but you can’t buy it from the UK.
Dammit SE, that AE pre-order I have was made about 5 minutes after it went up on Amazon, cancelling my original year-old normal pre-order and now you’re telling me I can’t even bloody activitate it unless I’m in the F-ing UK???? WTH is this shit.
17/08/2011 at 14:03 Shadowcat says:
They must be joking. Frankly I have no particular intention of moving to another country, but I damned well refuse to buy anything with such a retarded restriction on it. I don’t suppose the mass market will particularly care, but here’s hoping they get some really shitty word of mouth as a result, at the very least.
17/08/2011 at 14:18 ASBO says:
Another pre-order cancelled. Even though I live in the UK, us Euros need to stick together on this.
17/08/2011 at 14:43 oceanclub says:
“I believe Amazon doesn’t actually charge for preorders until they’re ready to ship.”
But would they now be left with a lot of stock they can’t sell?
P.
17/08/2011 at 15:02 Eclipse says:
I’ve, as many others, preordered it in uk while being in central europe. Now I’m just going to try to get my money back and then pirate it, thanks a lot Squeenix.
17/08/2011 at 15:06 somnolentsurfer says:
What a shame.
But also, what an opportunity for RPS to put the No Oceans campaign on the map. Let’s see an article with some solid research into the legality of this nonsense, some tips on who to write to and what to say, and some advice on how to start a court case to challenge it. It’s great to see people posting this stuff in forums and comments threads, but it deserves it’s own headline post.
17/08/2011 at 15:13 talon03 says:
Fairly sure retailers haven’t been informed of this until today. They are going to be very angry.
17/08/2011 at 15:42 JFS says:
I say one thing. HOIST THE JOLLY ROGER!
17/08/2011 at 15:45 magnus says:
I bet they’ll get lots of tedious postings on Amazon forums then, I’d better not try to piss them as tin-foil hatters’ll threaten to get me banned from the forums. But if I see any 1 star/ 2 sentence reviews from tin-foil hatter steam paranoid morons I’ll risk it ,especially if they’re the one’s that use big words to sound important!
17/08/2011 at 15:51 oceanclub says:
So i had to cancel my pre-order of the UK version of the Augmented Edition, only to find there’s none left in my region (er, Ireland, that country far distant from the UK). And, I don’t even know if the version in my region supports English – some claim that only Italian, German and French are supported. And I still don’t even know if Irish bricks and mortar retailers will have the “right” edition – all they keep saying is “yes it’s PAL” even when they’re told “PAL has NOTHING to do with PC games”.
This is just Bizarro World stuff.
P.
17/08/2011 at 15:57 Schadenfreude says:
Strangeness happening with these comments. I couldn’t see any of Page 5 (Except new ones in the side bar) until it rolled over to page 6. Now I can’t see any of page 6.
Has RPS region-locked the EU!UK out of its comments!!
17/08/2011 at 15:57 Lukasz says:
Aussies are f—ed too as many of the games in Australia are UK versions so wonder whether that is the case with DE3.
http://www.ozgameshop.com/ one of the best retailers in australialand is definitely a UK game importer.
what a shame
what a scam
17/08/2011 at 16:04 minipixel says:
what a shame!!!!111
17/08/2011 at 16:35 Magnetude says:
For those in the UK who wish to keep their pre-order, or for those who will be using a VPN to get around this ridiculous restriction, there is a silver lining:
“Pre-Order Price Guarantee
For items with a future release date, the Amazon.co.uk price may change between the time of order and the date the item is dispatched. We do not charge you until we dispatch an item; therefore, when you pre-order selected books, CDs, videos, DVDs, pieces of software or video games, you will be charged the lowest price offered by Amazon.co.uk between the time the order was placed and the item’s release date. ”
So because of today’s mass cancelling dropping the price by £10, you’ll now be charged only £25 + shipping.
Tell you what, that gives me an idea…
17/08/2011 at 16:47 shoptroll says:
What a shame. Also, what a mess.
17/08/2011 at 16:57 Khemm says:
There’s your precious Steam implementation you all wanted. Congrats, rejoice.
17/08/2011 at 17:35 Shortwave says:
If this game launches with region lock or always online nonsense I simply cannot buy it.
And that would be tragic.. Please smarten up.
17/08/2011 at 18:12 TooNu says:
I emailed these people becuase I want to add to the noise of this rubbish bullshittery.
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/consumers/contacts_en.html
If you feel you want to do something, you could also email them. If it helps or not I am not sure, but I felt better for sending an email :)
17/08/2011 at 18:34 TooNu says:
- So my boxed version of DEHR Aug’ ed’ will arrive here to me in Sweden around the release date.
- If I have a family member who lives in the UK use my activation code from my boxed version on his PC, will I then be able to play it here in Sweden?
OR
- Would my friend need to install it on a hardrive there in the UK, activate it, post me the hardrive and then I can play it here in Sweden.
I preordered my copy on the 10th December 2010 and am reluctant to cancel.
17/08/2011 at 19:09 Cromwell says:
I sent a complaint about this to the ECC.
17/08/2011 at 19:29 ulix says:
Nice, thanks Square.
This means I won’t buy the game but pirate it.
50€ saved.
17/08/2011 at 20:26 Inglourious Badger says:
What a shame.
The whole evil corporations taking part in global conspiracies thing has obviously gone to Squeenix’s head.
17/08/2011 at 20:29 Reefpirate says:
I spill my drink!
17/08/2011 at 21:15 Cooper says:
The Augmented edition just disappeared from Amazon.co.uk
Just this minute. I checked it just now, and now it’s gone.
And my pre-order has been changed to “limited edition”
Which is odd…
18/08/2011 at 01:37 Coldblade says:
In other news, the console versions of the game have leaked.
Not the PC one yet, thankfully.
18/08/2011 at 04:10 SavageD says:
I just cancelled my UK order and have ordered an Aug Edition key from GMG (with 20% discount using the code 20SUM-MERSA-VINGS).
I’m [I]slightly[/I] disappointed that I won’t be playing the Tong mission (doesn’t seem to be included with the digital version), but the $60AUD saving on the retail Aug Edition box in Australia (and the $25AUD saving over my former UK import copy) more than makes up for that.
Ironically, given what I was prepared to pay for a boxed edition, I’m saving a lot of money thanks to SE’s arsefuckery, and yet I still get to play their game.
18/08/2011 at 06:35 Reefpirate says:
Just thought I would chime in here and say: please remember to support the devs wherever possible, please! Do that as much as you can without screwing yourself over, of course… But just because Squeenix pulls a dick move (and I didn’t realize how dickish it was until I read through some of these comments) I hope it doesn’t affect the overall success of the game. Because even if it’s not up to expectations, I’m hoping this game is a step in the right direction for the AAA scene.
18/08/2011 at 10:59 cmi says:
Well I hope it WILL affect the overall success of the game (although I highly doubt it).
The reason is simple: if it doesn’t affect the success, this region locks will be standard for future blockbusters. Other publishers will look how this works out and do the same. SE or others will try to add region locks for all lowprice countries even for digital distribution. (I can’t stress this enough: while “producing” in some “cheap” country like Canada they force box buyers to buy high price.)
Problem is: most gamers are somehow “mindless” people. Ubisoft, EA, now SE can do whatever they want to restrict their customers rights. It’s a huge market controlled by some few big publishers. They can do (almost) whatever they want, success is guaranteed.
I for one will wait for some cheap sale on steam.
18/08/2011 at 11:48 Obsidian_Razor says:
Amazon has extended their info on region locking, it says this:
Update on Region Lock
Please note: It was reported that Deus Ex on PC is region-locked to the UK only. Square Enix has confirmed that this is not the case. If you are ordering from outside of the UK, you will be able to play this on your PC.
Does this mean that Square-Enix have backed down from this?
18/08/2011 at 11:48 Obsidian_Razor says:
Amazon has extended their info on region locking, it says this:
Update on Region Lock
Please note: It was reported that Deus Ex on PC is region-locked to the UK only. Square Enix has confirmed that this is not the case. If you are ordering from outside of the UK, you will be able to play this on your PC.
Does this mean that Square-Enix have backed down from this?
18/08/2011 at 12:18 superemmjay says:
This just in on amazon.co.uk:
Update on Region Lock
Please note: It was reported that Deus Ex on PC is region-locked to the UK only. Square Enix has confirmed that this is not the case. If you are ordering from outside of the UK, you will be able to play this on your PC.
18/08/2011 at 13:03 Cognitect says:
I almost cancelled my Amazon preorder yesterday, but decided to wait a couple of days and see if the situation changes. Now I’m really, really happy I waited.
Unfortunately the people who did cancel have now lost their place in line: all the retail augmented editions seem to have been sold.
18/08/2011 at 13:08 gory says:
While it’s a weird excuse that languages didn’t fit in one disc (when most of Europe will be playing it in English anyway), I had to cancel my amazon preorder as well.
But what about a gamersgate preorder?
I’m hesitant since it’s a US site (judging by the dollah), but the AE goes for 37 euros. Not too shabby.
18/08/2011 at 13:28 _PixelNinja says:
Seems like the region lock is off!
http://forums.eidosgames.com/showpost.php?p=1651200&postcount=778
20/08/2011 at 09:43 Onaka says:
Yet another game studio that doesn’t deserve my money. At this rate, soon I won’t be able to let myself buy any games.