Rock, Paper, Shotgun

DXHR No Longer Region Locked In Europe

By Jim Rossignol on August 18th, 2011 at 1:31 pm.


Square Enix appear to have reversed their decision on region-locking the retail copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution in Europe and the UK, which we’d noted yesterday. An Eidos forum post by Square Enix “mastering manager” Jason Walker says: “We’re aware of some discussion regarding the planned region-locking of boxed PC versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and after careful review we have decided not to implement this in the UK/Europe. Please note, this plan only related to PC boxed games, and not digital or console editions.”

__________________

« | »

, , .

164 Comments »

  1. 18/08/2011 at 13:34 Bilbo says:

    But what will be boycott? Oh right ubisoft.

    Feel bad for the people who cancelled their preorders, what a hassle

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:03 Kdansky says:

      Anyone who preorders has already given up their right to get what they pay for. After all, they pay for empty promises. In the age of digital distribution, there is absolutely no reason to buy anything before release.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:10 Bilbo says:

      Discount etc

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:10 Prime says:

      That’s a bit harsh, cynical and overly-simplistic: When pre-ordering is handled properly it works fine. It has always been a case of hoping your faith in that company’s coding skills are justified but this doesn’t negate your right to demand what was promised or, if money has changed hands, to seek recompense when it fails to materialise.

      Bilbo: Ubisoft deserve everything they’re getting. And more.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:12 hexapodium says:

      I preordered months and months ago, to exploit Amazon’s “lowest price between now and release” thing. Augmented edition, £25.
      Cancelled preorders is a joke though, I do hope all the various retailers will be sympathetic over all this.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:57 dirtyword says:

      Kdansky – “In the age of digital distribution, there is absolutely no reason to buy anything before release.”

      I agree with this very strongly. Why reserve a copy digital copy? It makes no sense.

    • 18/08/2011 at 15:11 Schadenfreude says:

      Don’t know where you are, but its a lot cheaper for me to preorder a boxed copy than to buy it digitally (In the case of DE I’m looking at a €15 saving). Which is ridiculous, but that’s the reality.

      Not everyone’s in the same position as you.

    • 18/08/2011 at 15:19 oceanclub says:

      “Cancelled preorders is a joke though, I do hope all the various retailers will be sympathetic over all this.”

      Unfortunately not. Amazon UK cancelled my £25 preorder (from Dec 2010) yesterday, and now the version is unavailable on their web site and support was no help. Guess I will be going without. Last Square Enix game I will buy; they’ve really pissed me off.

      P.

    • 18/08/2011 at 16:19 Calneon says:

      Access to betas is a pretty good reason to pre-order (e.g. Trackmania 2).

    • 18/08/2011 at 18:03 Carra says:

      Bah, pre-orders. They cancelled my SW – TOR pre-order since there is now a “new version”.

    • 18/08/2011 at 18:39 wengart says:

      For those of you who canceled a good preorder deal Green Man Gaming is selling Deus Ex for 33$ if you use any of these codes.

      SUNNY-SAVER-20PEC or 20PEC-FACEB-SAVER or 20SUM-MERSA-VINGS The vouchers discount 20% and this works on top of the 15% off already applied.

      BTW that link above is a referral link so anyone who uses it will get 5(of your currency) and I will get 5$.

    • 19/08/2011 at 11:07 Milky1985 says:

      I pre-order stuff as a way to get a copy on release day and say to the game makers “look this game i want to get , make sure you get a bunch of copies out there its a good game”

      However i will nto be preordering any more from shops as i used to as they have started asking for deposits on stuff again.

      Pre-order zenoblade chornicals a month ago, ask about getting the version with the classic controller and was told ti shoudl be fine. Turns out that after i pre-order they decided that if you wanted the version witht eh classic controller you had to pay a desposit i only fodn out when i phoned up on wednesday to check if the pre-order was in. Had to go in pay a deposit to go pickit up today, sodding stupid.

      Add to that the EA deposit thing for the old republic (a deposit for a digital item YOU MIGHT NOT GET is even more retarded) its getting stupid, steam charges you when you pre-order the item not on release etc etc

      The games industry is making itself harder to support i feel sometimes. Just let us put down our names for a pre-order so you can get an idea (not accurate i know as a certain percentage that will be trackable will change there mind) of how many peopel want, then we pay on release, thats all i want to do and have been able to do that the past few years.

  2. 18/08/2011 at 13:34 VelvetFistIronGlove says:

    Good to hear they’ve decided to fix this.

    Sadly, this still leaves the many customers who cancelled their UK preorders on the previous news still worse off than before, as they now have to pay more if they couldn’t reinstate their Amazon UK order.

    What a pity.

    • 18/08/2011 at 13:36 soldant says:

      And some stores just cancelled PC preorders until they knew what the story was. Yay.

    • 18/08/2011 at 15:15 nofing says:

      I’m glad, that I hadn’t cancelled my pre-order yet. I hope you guys, who already cancelled, can work this out with your retailer. Glad this turned out for the better, now let’s bug Blizzard until they let us create separate characters for offline/mod play. (I know that’s never going to happen)

    • 18/08/2011 at 16:30 godgoo says:

      Apologies to whoever it was whose pre order I stole, I’m sending you international love. love, but no pre-order.

    • 18/08/2011 at 19:08 Cinek says:

      Yep… I’ve got this problem. Already canceled :( I guess I’ll settle down with my local store pre-order. Less cool stuff but the price will be much lower.

      Never the less I’m not happy, though the information about removal of region lock is in did a good thing.

  3. 18/08/2011 at 13:35 Mithrandir0x says:

    Does this mean the the Amazon.co.uk edition is still usable for non-UK, yet european folks?

  4. 18/08/2011 at 13:35 Teddy Leach says:

    Jolly good, Mr. Mastering Manager.

  5. 18/08/2011 at 13:36 AndrewC says:

    All this DRM and stuff is very important and soooooooooooo boring! It’s great that they’re listening, it’s terrible the over-reaction from the community, it’s great places like RPS are highlighting this stuff, it’s terrible that the corporations are so staggeringly out of touch.

    Important. Boring. Boring. Important. Imma go find a game with bunnies in.

    • 18/08/2011 at 13:38 ASBO says:

      Staggeringly well put.

    • 18/08/2011 at 13:40 Jim Rossignol says:

      Yes, I sort of wince with each story we do on DRM. But when companies change their mind, well, it’s clear we *have* to run these stories.

    • 18/08/2011 at 13:47 LionsPhil says:

      I, for one, appreciate RPS actually bothering to cover the “will you be able to run the game without an electronic choke collar around your neck” angle. In a perfect world they could postpone the initial article for a few days until the publisher gets a chance to vacilliate and skip right to the ending, but that’s not really how news reporting works alas.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:23 Schadenfreude says:

      On the plus side it’s always good for page hits. The advertisers must love it.

      Pretty disappointed in Eurogamer not running anything about this. Though having listened to their podcasts they strike me as not being personally invested in the PC all that much. Would have been nice of them to mention it all the same.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:25 Kefren says:

      I back RPS coverage of DRM too. DRM does not work as a policy. Companies should just focus on giving the best deal to paying customers, including DRM-free. I have bought a number of games (some crappy) just because they were DRM free.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:40 Magnetude says:

      Yes, thanks Jim et al for covering what others can’t be bothered to. If it makes you feel any better, I hate reading it just as much as you hate posting it. But the Anger of The Internet Men is needed to convince these companies that what they’re doing isn’t cricket, so keep it up please.

    • 18/08/2011 at 15:34 TheApologist says:

      Yeah – I value RPS’ coverage of this stuff. It’s not what I *want* to be reading about, but that is publishers fault, not RPS.

      Good to hear they have shifted on this. I can forgive a mis-step that’s acknowledged and fixed. Shame so many had to lost out on their pre-order deals though.

    • 18/08/2011 at 16:13 drewski says:

      RPS is Eurogamer’s PC specialist affiliate [/joking but sort of not]

  6. 18/08/2011 at 13:36 Thiefsie says:

    Hmmm angry internet men 1, Squeenix 0

    • 18/08/2011 at 15:12 jezcentral says:

      But they did change their minds quickly. Perhaps a “Angry internet 1, Squeenix 1″?

      Ubisoft, now there’s a company that is screwing the pooch, and then going back for more. “Angry internet 0, Ubifail -1″.

  8. 18/08/2011 at 13:40 Kaira- says:

    It’s good that they did walk away from region locking, but I’m afraid I’m still not going buy it, at least not yet.

    • 18/08/2011 at 16:04 Commisar says:

      From what you have said previously, I don’t think you are going to buy ANY PC games this fall

    • 18/08/2011 at 16:06 Commisar says:

      From what you have said previously, I don’t think you are going to buy ANY PC games this fall. Oh well, more fun for me

    • 18/08/2011 at 16:15 Kaira- says:

      I think you might be misinterpreting what I say. I don’t say “never from Steam”, but rather “never full-priced game from Steam”. Maybe I won’t buy big AAA-games on PC this fall, but that doesn’t mean I can’t turn to indies. Just recently bought Dungeons of Dredmore despite of Steam, and will probably buy it again for Linux once they release that version. The Witness looks mighty interesting too.

  9. 18/08/2011 at 13:40 Jp1138 says:

    Just returned from holidays and saw all the region locking stuff. When entering the Amazon UK page to cancel my preorder, just saw this:

    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.

    So being away spared me of all this nonsense. I would be very angry had I cancelled my order, as the Aumented Edition doesn´t seem to be available right now…

  10. 18/08/2011 at 13:41 Colthor says:

    Hurrah!

    Maybe they (or their lawyers) decided they were skirting the EU free-trade laws a bit closely.

  11. 18/08/2011 at 13:42 Corrupt_Tiki says:

    Yay for listening XD

  12. 18/08/2011 at 13:42 7rigger says:

    I wasn’t even planning on buying this, But I may just to prove that I appreciate publishers listening to their customers (Ok plus it does look good)

    It seems the only course left these days is to treat publishers like dogs – reward the good behaviour instead of punishing the bad! Bad DRM! Go to your bed!

  13. 18/08/2011 at 13:42 Velvetmeds says:

    Good. Now everyone buy 10 copies of the damn game!

  14. 18/08/2011 at 13:44 shoptroll says:

    Post lacks “sudden outbreak of common sense” tag

    Hooray for saner heads prevailing!

  15. 18/08/2011 at 13:44 vanilla bear says:

    “After careful review” – we asked our lawyers.
    “We have decided not to implement this” – they said it was illegal

    • 18/08/2011 at 13:51 Sian says:

      I chuckled. You’re probably 100 % correct.

    • 18/08/2011 at 13:55 Prime says:

      :D I don’t doubt this is the way it happened either. Nice one.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:10 cmi says:

      Haha this, so many times this. Win.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:21 Thermal Ions says:

      More likely they got inundated with online retailers who wished to cancel their stock orders for product they were intending to sell across borders, and subsequently couldn’t.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:42 SuperNashwan says:

      Was going to make exactly the same post on legality, free movement of goods in the EU and all.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:46 4026 says:

      @Thermal Ions: No, vanilla bear’s got a point. They’re not pulling region-locking entirely, just within the EU. It looks an awful lot like they just fell foul of the EU single market.

      And, unfortunately, it looks nothing like they were actually listening to the complaints of their customers. Otherwise, why keep the region-locking everywhere else? I predict that Australians, for one, will still get shafted.

    • 18/08/2011 at 17:24 tech7 says:

      vanilla is right.

      While the region lock was not illegal itself, every UK store that listed the game broke EU law. Valve can get away with it since STEAM isn’t an EU company (and afaik STEAM copies weren’t affected in the first place). Some stores already unlisted the game (and I assume they also canceled their orders).
      This also explains why they only lifted the restriction for UK/EU. Other people who also complaint since they can’t preorder a cheap UK copy are still out of luck.

    • 18/08/2011 at 18:12 Azhrarn says:

      @Tech7: The UK pre-orders are up again, and amazon changed their warning to a comment stating that Square Enix changed their mind on the lock-out.

      Glad I decided to wait before cancelling my order with Amazon, so I still have a UK Augmented Edition pre-order coming to my home when it releases and it will work here in the Netherlands. Yay =D

      Now I just need to cancel my Dutch AE pre-order.
      Saves me €25 for the same content, just gives me a 2 day delay as the package makes it’s way over to me.

    • 18/08/2011 at 19:00 VelvetFistIronGlove says:

      @tech7 I doubt they are in fact exempt: for example, my credit card statement identifies the merchant as “Steampowered.Com, London”, and before that it used to be (IIRC—will check and edit accordingly) an LLC in Leichtenstein.

      So if I’m in the UK making a purchase from a supplier in the UK, then I don’t see how they could be exempt. I admit I’m not very familiar with the laws in question, nor the particulars of the company that is actually receiving the payments from Steam in the UK.

  16. 18/08/2011 at 13:45 d3vilsadvocate says:

    I wonder if my email to that EU commission helped in any of that.

    Probably not :P But this shows we don’t have to put up with everything nonetheless.

  17. 18/08/2011 at 13:46 Jnx says:

    Why is it that these companies don’t “carefully review” these decisions beforehand?

  18. 18/08/2011 at 13:47 CMaster says:

    That screenshot looks a lot like the (terrible) ending sequence for System Shock 2.

  19. 18/08/2011 at 13:50 JFS says:

    And what with Steam versions of the game? And what with versions on the playboxes (not everyone has a fancy PC around)? If locking retail PC boxes is not advisable/probably illegal, why isn’t this the case with other versions of the game? The Jolly Roger remains aloft.

    • 18/08/2011 at 13:53 Sian says:

      “Please note, this plan only related to PC boxed games, and not digital or console editions.”

      Note the past tense. I think that means that region-locking was never going to be implemented on Steam nor on consoles.

    • 18/08/2011 at 13:54 Unaco says:

      It only ever affected PC Boxed/Retail copies.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:09 JFS says:

      I’m sorry. I mistook the d for an s. Thank you for pointing that out. :) And here I was, already wondering why no one seemed to care that the locking remained in place for the other versions.

  20. 18/08/2011 at 13:51 Tunips says:

    Nice of them to come to their senses, but I’m beyond caring. The mob I pre-ordered with did the decent thing; they contacted me, cancelled the preorder and provided an immediate refund. Good on them and their customer service.
    The thought of going back to the coalface and researching where I can find a proper box at an internationally competitive price that will arrive fairly quickly is too much to bear.

    So, I think I’ll play Morrowind some more. I finally got the distant land mod working.

  21. 18/08/2011 at 13:51 el_Chi says:

    There’s still a staggered release though, yes? The Yanks still get it first?

    • 18/08/2011 at 13:53 Velvetmeds says:

      Yes sadly

    • 18/08/2011 at 13:55 el_Chi says:

      Sigh. I may have to impose an internet blackout on myself from the 23rd, lest spoilers get thrown around, like so much monkey feces.

    • 18/08/2011 at 13:59 Jnx says:

      TBH these days this only works for our benefit. You can hear about the bad console port, unresponsive controls, the bugs and that it doesn’t run on ATI cards before you buy.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:02 Velvetmeds says:

      As if any of that is going to happen with DE HR.

      Well maybe the ATI bug..with the loading screens..which is there for months and probably not fixed yet…

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:11 el_Chi says:

      Not sure I agree with that. Plus, I’d prefer to hear about crappy AI, loading screens etc from trusted reviewers anyway.

      Also, I’ve preordered this game, so hearing about any shittiness in advance would only dampen my enjoyment.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:12 Magnetude says:

      It’s already leaked on Xbox, so I’m staying well away from certain corners of the internet I might otherwise go to because this is just the kind of game some awful people love to ruin for others.

    • 18/08/2011 at 15:00 jon_hill987 says:

      Impossible! There is no piracy on consoles!

  22. 18/08/2011 at 13:53 diebroken says:

    Right, now that’s settled. What format will the soundtrack on the Augmented ‘making of’ DVD be in?

  23. 18/08/2011 at 13:54 Hakkesshu says:

    Awesome. Maybe you guys could have sorted this out months ago so it was still possible to pre-order the damn thing on Amazon.

  24. 18/08/2011 at 13:54 talon03 says:

    Half of Europe have now cancelled pre-orders on editions they will no longer be able to get a hold of for no reason. What an utter, utter shambles.

  25. 18/08/2011 at 13:56 Delusibeta says:

    After the From Dust debarcle, excuse me while I take any executive talk about any DRM with a large slab of salt.

  26. 18/08/2011 at 13:58 Bluerps says:

    Ok, now I’m confused.

    Yesterday, I cancelled my Amazon.co.uk preorder for the Augmented edition and preordered the limited edition at Amazon.de. “Limited edition” is what the Augmented edition is called in Germany (because calling it “augmented” wouldn’t make sense in german).

    Now I tried to reverse that, and again preorder the Augmented edition at Amazon.co.uk. However, it is no longer available there, apparently (is it sold out?). It is still listed, but there is no preorder button, only an “alert me when this becomes available”-button.

    Additionally, there is now a “limited edition” (and no standard edition, I just realized) listed there, which seems to contain some of the stuff of the Augmented edition, but not all of it (note that this is not the case with the german limited edition, which contains all the stuff of the Augmented edition).

    Weird.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:02 Lewie Procter says:

      The “Limited Edition” is just the standard edition plus the preorder bonus DLC, I believe. I think that after release, or when all the stock that includes the preorder bonus has sold out, those listings will revert to the standard edition.

      Amazon will only have a given level of stock allocated to them of each version, and as the cheapest place to get the Augmented Edition in the UK, they have sold out.

      Yesterday, when lots of people cancelled their preorders because of news from SE that it would not work in their region, people (like yourself) cancelled their preorder, which freed up a load of stock, which was quickly snaffled by UK folk who were after the Augmented Edition.

      Pretty awful set of circumstances for EU folk who had the Augemented Edition preordered for cheap. There are no cheap preorders of the AE available now.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:36 Bluerps says:

      Ah, yes, that makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up.

      Oh well. I think I’ll stick with the german version this time. It’s basically the same thing I would have gotten from the cancelled order. The only relevant difference being that I have to fork over more Euros for it… *sigh*

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:53 4026 says:

      Oh, is that what was going on yesterday? Huh. Now I feel a bit bad for snaffling one of those pre-orders.

      But, aha… not bad enough to actually cancel it, of course.

  27. 18/08/2011 at 14:00 JayG says:

    Glad I didn’t cancel my amazon order, just have to now cancel the green man gaming one I got. What a lot of silly messing around.

  28. 18/08/2011 at 14:02 Schadenfreude says:

    I feel sorry for all the guys who cancelled their preorders (I was gonna give it another day before I did mine) but I’ve no doubt that if so many hadn’t nothing would have changed. I suspect the likes of Amazon, Game and Play do a staggering amount of overseas business and they would not have been happy at the sudden influx of cancellations.

  29. 18/08/2011 at 14:04 olemars says:

    Note that the Russian region lock is still in place, since Sqeenix apparently are a bit pragmatic on what they consider part of Europe and not.

  30. 18/08/2011 at 14:13 db1331 says:

    My region is augmented.

  31. 18/08/2011 at 14:14 Keneb says:

    I see so many posts in the nature of ‘Guess I’ll boycott this game…’ and ‘I’ll buy this now because…’

    I think you’re all liars. We’re gamers. The vast, vast majority of us lack the willpower to stay away from a major release that we want. I don’t know a single gamer who could listen to others harp on about a game without relenting eventually.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:32 Acosta says:

      We may be gamers, but we are not junkies.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:37 Sian says:

      I didn’t buy Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood until they dropped the DRM, just as I said. I didn’t buy Starcraft 2 at all, though I do enjoy TotalBiscuit’s videos about it. I’m not going to buy Diablo 3, unless, through some miracle, Blizzard drops their always-on DRM, the RMT auction house and, although I’m not as adamant about this, allows mods.

      We may be gamers, but we’re not all the same.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:44 Wilson says:

      Yeah, it depends on the person. There’s nothing about being a gamer which says you can’t have the willpower not to buy games you’re interested in, that’s just silly. Especially since if you do wait, you can usually get a better/cheaper deal (either a cheaper price for an older game, or a GOTY edition with more content). It’s just a question of patience.

      I really hope this is going to be awesome, but I’ve got lots of other cool stuff to play in the meantime. There’s no rush.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:58 skocznymroczny says:

      I skipped Starcraft 2 despite being a huge fan of SC1.
      I skipped on Serious Sam HD because of Steamworks, while I am a huge fan of SS1 and SS2.
      I will be skipping on Risen2 because of Steamworks, despite being a huge Risen and Gothic fan.

    • 18/08/2011 at 16:18 drewski says:

      Yes, judge everybody to be as pathetic as your friends. That seems highly probable.

    • 18/08/2011 at 17:24 magnus says:

      It’s best to leave it, you’ll never break through that particular kind of tin-foil hat, what next? ‘PC’s are a form DRM because you need a PC to be able to play some games’?

  32. 18/08/2011 at 14:20 SavageD says:

    I’m going to spend the money I ‘saved’ by having my retail Aug Edition preorder cancelled on me, by augmenting my vision. With lots of beer.

    When that wears off, I may thank the dickheads at Square Enix for indirectly introducing me to Green Man Gaming. I would have liked a box, but I’ll be quite happy with my much-cheaper-than-steam-itself-in-my-region digital Aug Edition.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:49 Wilson says:

      Does anyone have opinions on Green Man Gaming by the way? I bought Victoria II from them a while back, but had real issues getting mods working because of the DRM they use. In the end I got the game from somewhere else so I could use mods. It looks like they have decent prices, and I had no problems with the DRM they had except that I couldn’t use mods with it.

      Seems to me it would be good for games you only plan to play a short while, or games without modding scenes. I’m not convinced that it’s for me though.

    • 18/08/2011 at 15:13 SavageD says:

      Indeed, that was my concern being my first purchase with GMG. Deus Ex: HR is a Steam title though, so GMG will only be supplying a Steam key instead of a download. Once you plug that into the Steam client, it activates and behaves just like any other Steam purchase.

  33. 18/08/2011 at 14:26 Kefren says:

    They still plan to region lock the rest of the world. We should be a united global culture, not just celebrate because we’re treated less harshly than others.

    • 18/08/2011 at 18:53 thegooseking says:

      No they don’t. There was only ever a region-lock for the UK and Russia. Now there’s only a region-lock for Russia. There never was any plan for a region-lock for the rest of the world.

  34. 18/08/2011 at 14:28 skocznymroczny says:

    I am still not buying it because of Steamworks, but good to see the region lock was dropped.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:31 BreadBitten says:

      U mad bruv?

    • 18/08/2011 at 15:00 skocznymroczny says:

      nah, not mad. While I loved Deus Ex 1 and completed it at least five times, I don’t think this one will be huge. It’s clearly made for console players, it has too much focus on combat and some stupid biowarey “dialogue” stuff.
      On top of that, long before release, it already gets 94% reviews, that easily translates to “yes we love the game, if we didn’t, the publisher would stop inviting us to press releases and trade shows”

    • 18/08/2011 at 15:11 BreadBitten says:

      Hrrm, you seem to talk as if you’ve already played the game, have you dabbled in the leaked demo by any chance?

      Also, what does the quality of the game have to do with it supporting Steamworks?

    • 18/08/2011 at 16:06 skocznymroczny says:

      no, I haven’t played the game, but I can tell a hype when I see one.

      Steamworks severely limits my consumer rights and unnecessarily locks the game. I want to own the game, not license it and I want to be able to access it at any time, even 20 years from now if I feel like it, which Steam doesn’t guarantee at all.

    • 18/08/2011 at 16:21 drewski says:

      I’ll buy it in the 2012 Christmas Steam sale for $8, like I do with every AAA game I’m not stupid enough to pay full price for.

      I don’t mind Steamworks, but it definitely reduces the price I’ll pay for a game. I happily pre-ordered Fallout to get it on release day, but I’d never think of doing that with a Steamworks game.

    • 18/08/2011 at 19:06 VelvetFistIronGlove says:

      skocznymroczny: You seem to be rather too cynical. Do yourself a favour and check out the leak anyway—you’re really dismissing the game unfairly. Or go back and read Quinns’ “10 things you will think while playing DXHR” article, which was spot on.

  35. 18/08/2011 at 14:28 Acosta says:

    Great news, wise choice.

  36. 18/08/2011 at 14:29 BreadBitten says:

    A sigh of relief escapes my lungs… =D

  37. 18/08/2011 at 14:30 Luis_Magalhaes says:

    Hum. This kind flew over my head, so I guess it was kind of a non-issue, glad it happened like this or I might have canceled my Amazon.co.uk preorder… nah, not really.

    Anyway, I know I’m late to the party, but… PC region-locking. Really? Huh.

  38. 18/08/2011 at 14:30 Kevlmess says:

    Oh my… feeling a bit disappointed, betrayed and cheated but most of all quite stupid right now.

    I live in Finland. Hearing the bad news yesterday I cancelled my Amazon.co.uk preorder and preordered my DX:HR:AE digitally from Green Man Gaming instead – for 10 euros more, even with a discount code, and without extra stuff. And now I see this and GMG don’t do refunds for Steamworks titles. “Ouch” is the least profane four letter word that springs to mind.

    Ouch!

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:37 SavageD says:

      Ah, but they haven’t given you your Steam key yet so you should be able to cancel, if you wanted to. I’m not though.

      I ordered the GMG Aug Edition last night, as the retailer I chose (who were going to source UK retail boxes for their stock) cancelled my preorder and now I can’t get the physical Aug Edition without paying an arm and a leg anyway.

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:47 Velvetmeds says:

      You can get a refund before they send you the key

    • 18/08/2011 at 14:54 Kevlmess says:

      Oh, that would be delightful.

      (First time replying, let’s see how this goes.)

      Edit: Ooo, my reply reigns supreme! Also, on the other hand, as amazon UK is out of AE, maybe I’ll stick with my digital order to get my game immediately upon release.

    • 20/08/2011 at 14:31 JayG says:

      Great, I finally get a reply from Green Gaming to a cancelation I sent long before cd key was sent, and of course the bastards are keeping the money for a key I no longer want or will actually use. How legal is this, anything else I buy that I never used I can return. Well no way I would ever buy anything from that shower again, thieves.

  39. 18/08/2011 at 14:38 JayG says:

    I’d assume no refunds with steamworks only counts after you install it onto steamworks, they haven’t even got the codes yet. I tried cancelling mine, see how it goes.

  40. 18/08/2011 at 14:58 sacrovir says:

    It would be nice if someone were to do an article on European game pricing and restrictions.

    For example, why is the following the case?:

    1. I can buy from Amazon UK so long as i have any billing address in the world.
    2. I can buy from Itunes UK so long as i have a billing address in that country.
    3. I can buy from Steam so long as i am *in* that country. In Germany i’m not allowed to enter a UK billing address. Also if i buy a game over steam in Germany its never clear what language i will get.

    Also the extraordinary price difference between mainland Europe and the UK. Just check out the same game on Amazon DE & UK.

    • 18/08/2011 at 15:16 Schadenfreude says:

      This is pretty much the reason why, outside of the crazy sales, I don’t use Steam. Why would I pay €45-€50 to download a game when I can import the boxed copy from the UK for ~€35. (Or even hop in my car and drive over the boarder to Northern Ireland).

      I’d love to see them justify this somehow – the absolute reaming Euros get can’t be explained away by differences in VAT and exchange rates. Is there another reason or is it just more likely that it’s a bit of price gouging?

    • 18/08/2011 at 17:28 Theory says:

      Retailers threaten to not carry a publisher’s games if they undercut high street prices online (it is alleged). Thus the constant sales, I reckon.

  41. 18/08/2011 at 15:01 TooNu says:

    This is indeed good news and makes me happy that I did not cancel my preordered Augmented edition. woo!. I don’t actually ever say woo!.

  42. 18/08/2011 at 15:04 Zanchito says:

    He says “boxed copies”. Are all digital downloads region free?

  43. 18/08/2011 at 15:15 magnus says:

    I will be to be honest a little dissapointed if I can’t get the collectors edition as a Steelbook as they are really nice, the F.E.A.R. 2 Steelbook was lovely!

  44. 18/08/2011 at 15:56 Unrein says:

    Proletariat 1 – Big corporation 0

    Feels good!

  45. 18/08/2011 at 16:28 Angryinternetman says:

    I wonder if complaints to the EU trade commission had any effect… yet.
    There might have not been many, but im happy I did complain.

  46. 18/08/2011 at 16:49 DrGonzo says:

    What is region locking then and why should we be annoyed?

    This is still a certain buy for me, already played a huge amount of it through (naughty!) and it was absolutely fandabbydosy.

    • 18/08/2011 at 17:29 Post-Internet Syndrome says:

      A lot of people have preordered copies from other countries to get better prices, and subsequently cancelled (or had their orders cancelled for them by the stores) yesterday. That is annoying as hell.

  47. 18/08/2011 at 17:26 magnus says:

    Holy shit, I’m just lucky I checked my order with Amazon! I though I’d ordered the Limited version when it was the Augmented one I’d ordered. Well it’s sorted now.

  48. 18/08/2011 at 17:52 1R0N_W00K13 says:

    Am I the only one who thinks Square Enix are kind of the good guys in the games industry now? They aren’t like EA. Bad, bad people live at EA.

    • 18/08/2011 at 18:54 Prime says:

      I think what’s been happening over the last few years is that the measuring scale has shifted: we have so many bad, evil, horrible companies out there now (mainly the big ones, hmm…) that anything judged to be “not evil” is seen as some kind of shining light in the darkness. It also explains why companies like Valve are, in the modern era, hailed as nigh-messianic forces when in the old days they would have simply been labelled “good”.

    • 18/08/2011 at 20:06 1R0N_W00K13 says:

      I can run with that. The idea that any big time developer can steer clear of acting the same way that EA, Activision and Ubisoft seem to be acting these days is commendable in all honesty.

  49. 18/08/2011 at 18:56 Inglourious Badger says:

    What a shame.

    No, wait! The opposite.

  50. 18/08/2011 at 19:04 Narretz says:

    I wonder … not speaking of DXHR, but in principle … companies seem to have easy on-off switches for all sorts of DRM-stuff built in to their games, so they can easily change their minds, make granular adjustments and so forth.
    Wouldn’t it be great if they had invested the time to program this into the game proper?
    One can dream …

  51. 18/08/2011 at 20:47 akumen says:

    Didn’t pre-order as I didn’t like the beta at all … it was such a let down. All the recent news about the game could be titled … how to mismanage a game release and alienate your customer base. Then again, that seems to be the thing du jour to do these days.

  52. 19/08/2011 at 05:37 PetiteGreve says:

    aw…

    at first I was like “FLAWLESS VICTORY !”

    then I read some comments and realized : they removed the Augmented Edition in the UK.

    …

    My email to Square Enix Europe was basically saying :

    “I know why there’s a region-lock : not because of languages files not fitting on the DVD, it’s because the UK DE:HR Augmented Edition cost LESS than the DE:HR normal edition in the rest of Europe” (which was true : UK DE:HR AugEd = £25 / Europe DE:HR = £32)

    And now the UK DE:HR AugEd is removed.

    …

    Sure, no more region-lock.

    Also, no more “cheaper Augmented Edition featuring artbooks+DLCs+makingof and ingame goodies”.

    …

    Sorry ?

    • 19/08/2011 at 09:34 Theory says:

      It’s not been removed, it’s sold out. When the cancelled pre-orders started flooding in it came back on the market at a low price and was snapped up.

    • 19/08/2011 at 14:04 Azhrarn says:

      The version wasn’t removed, I waited with cancelling my Amazon.co.uk Deus Ex AE pre-order until Square had some time to respond, and I’m glad I did. I had pre-ordered through a local online store in the mean time just in case, and that €60 order has now been cancelled.
      That pre-order is still live for ~€35, so I should have it a few days after release.

  53. 19/08/2011 at 06:01 bill says:

    Why only UK/Europe?
    Does this mean other regions were never locked? Or still will be?

    I sense worry over EU fair trade laws… but many other regions don’t have those.

    • 19/08/2011 at 14:07 Azhrarn says:

      Russia is still locked out, the rest of the world never was. The region lock mainly applied to the two nations that generally speaking have considerably lower prices for new games when compared to the rest of Europe.

      When SE announced that all languages will be available for all version as Steam language packs it made sense. The Russian version costs a fraction of the normal EU version and with all languages open, you could get the game cheap as chips and then download the language of your choice.
      Same goes for the UK version, but the difference was considerably smaller, although still significant.

  54. 19/08/2011 at 10:22 pohead123 says:

    hm good to know.. I got mine at http://www.cjs-cdkeys.com/products/Deus-Ex%3A-Human-Revolution-%252d-STEAM-CD-KEY-SCAN.html its only £22.99 there. its a steam download version, its a discount deal they are doing only this week. worth buying!

  55. 19/08/2011 at 11:34 RegisteredUser says:

    Guess they still haven’t heard about the internet.

    People WILL just TAKE what they feel entitled to, regardless of what you decide.

    The only way you can conceivable score something like a “win” in this environment is to actually do something nice to and for people consistently.

    I don’t see this happening much outside of the Indie community to be honest.

Comment on this story

XHTML: Allowed code: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Respond to our gibber

Read our finest words

The Flare Path: Elegant Elefanticide

Search for clues

Play indie, mods, demos

Browse the archive