[Mista]

Steam users can now change the country where they live just once every three months, according to SteamDB.

In a further crack down on people buying games in cheaper regions, Valve added a limit on how often you can change your Steam account's country. Country may not be updated more than once every 3 months. Purchases can be completed using a payment method from your current region.

Steam is reportedly limiting region switching to stop people buying games cheaply | VGC

The move comes ahead of today’s expected launch of the Steam Summer Sale…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[HE1NZ]

I'm okay with this if this means more regionally priced games.

 

[Redviper]

Any reason not to leave my region as like russia or argentina?

 

[JuiceboxHero]

Any reason not to leave my region as like russia or argentina?

Some games may be region locked to that particular localization. This is pretty common in Europe apparently as I've seen so many complaints about a game being in one language, when the players speak and read another. Usually if they're in a neighboring country. Otherwise some countries may ban or limit the content within a game. I remember Germany requiring the removal of Nazi imagery or just outright banning the game for it (or being too violent etc). Australia will outright ban a game for having alcohol or drug use, I think. So yeah, your mileage may vary.

 

[HE1NZ]

Some games may be region locked to that particular localization. This is pretty common in Europe apparently as I've seen so many complaints about a game being in one language, when the players speak and read another. Usually if they're in a neighboring country. Otherwise some countries may ban or limit the content within a game. I remember Germany requiring the removal of Nazi imagery or just outright banning the game for it (or being too violent etc). Australia will outright ban a game for having alcohol or drug use, I think. So yeah, your mileage may vary.

Ubisoft is locking games to Russian language in my region so I have to get them elsewhere.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

I didn't realize this was still a thing. Is it because of crazy high prices in certain regions or are people just being cheap?

 

[Arkam]

I can understand this. Properties often have licenses per region. If somebody owns the rights in Germany, not really fair for Germans to be able to grab the Russian (or whatever) version. Also many countries have their own rating system and could run the publisher afoul of local regulators. Then there is the fact that games with regional license holder often have their own hosting solution. It is designed for a certain geographic area. Those outside will have a sub par experience and in come cases grieve others simply by their participation. (example getting into a PVP match with someone whose ping is in the high hundreds so they just warp around the map) Or they are on you team in a co-op and they dont speak the language.

Yes, we all want the cheapest games/goods/services. But sometimes its not that simple. And we all know region swapping is a loophole that is being exploited.