Steam Region Locked Gifts?!!

So once again Steam manages to piss me off.  Now I know that this thing I'm about to get mad about probably has some kind of economic/business reason that I'm just too stupid to understand but that doesn't stop it from pissing me off any less!

So a few days ago I was streaming Silent Hill and one of my Stream regulars said that they wanted to donate to the charity.  However, he couldn't donate because BTMyDonate wouldn't take his card and he lives in Russia so getting money into the charity was proving to be quite a task for him.  So then he comes up with a great idea of gifting me a game from Steam and I put the money into the charity from my account equal to the value of the game.

So he gifts me the game on Steam and there's this big stupid fucking message on it says "This game can only be played in <bunch of countries in and around Russia>"  It then goes on to say that even if I accept the gift, I won't be able to play it unless I'm in one of the listed countries and if I try to get around this block with a VPN or some such crap then getting a ban from Steam would be quite possible.

FUCKING. BULLSHIT.

What the fuck is the goddamn problem?  All I'm downloading is the data for the game, why does Steam have to limit access to a title based on your fucking country?!  This is the beauty of the internet, that it doesn't matter where I am in the world, I can download a file or share a file with someone else.  If I have photos on Facebook I want to show my friends, then they can see them, you don't see social media platforms going "NOPE! YOUR FRIEND LIVES IN JAPAN SO YOU CAN'T SEE THAT SHIT!"

Why is there any region locking on PC games AT ALL?!  Or any games at all in this day and age for that matter....

So the next day he comes in the stream and he's like "Yo! Why does my donation say £19?!" at which point I start to fucking panic because I thought I undercut the guy.  But no, turns out I went WAYYYY over what he paid.  So for me the game costs £19 but for him it's 450 rubles which is equal to £4.50.

OH, SO THERE IT FUCKING IS!  I guess the reason they region lock the gifts is so that people with Russian buddies like me can't just get round all the jacked up prices and get easy cheap shit, right?  Well that's still bullshit because why does it cost so much for me and so little for him?!  Why not bring the price down for us, or up for him?  Like is 450 rubles a ton of money or something?  I mean the way he was talking about it it's not that much so what the fuck?!

But whatever, let's just say I don't understand, but the way he got the game to me in the end was through Good Old Games

Now the game is a bit less there, it's more like £16 but for him it's STILL £4 fucking 50p.  But you know what? I can't even be mad at this change in price because GoG doesn't fucking region lock their gifts.  He gifted me the game and it went into my account just fine with no problems and then I used the Steam price listing for his donation.

All in all I'm not really that angry because I got a game, he payed next to nothing for it and £19 went to the Alzheimer's Society but I'm hoping that someone out there can explain this shit to me because right now it seems like top grade, pure gold bullshit.

The Xbox One (Eighty)

We finally have our first blog post that comes with a theme song

Well, maybe only the chorus.

ANYWAY!  News is that Microsoft have pulled the biggest backpedalling 180 degree turn and basically removed their DRM plans from the Xbox One.

So from what I can figure out by looking at various news sites, they have got rid of the 24 hour internet connection things and the limitations on game sharing and used games.

What they have said about the 24 hour connecting thing is that when you first set the console up, you will have to do a online set up thing and after that you can play it on or offline as much as you like.  The first time set up thing still sounds like a pain in the arse for me because those things never go smoothly, but it'll probably be fine for most people.

They have also said that games will work the same way that they do today.  There won't be any of this install the game to the system and then never need a disc again bullshit.  You throw the disc in the tray and play the goddamn game.  When you are done playing the goddamn game, you can trade it in or lend it to a friend or do whatever the fuck you want with it, and that's great.  Also games that you download will be playable offline but you will not be able to share them, but we weren't able to do that with the 360 so it's not so bad.

Finally they got rid of that stupid fucking region lock thing.  Originally they were planning to only allow the console to work in something like 21 countries, but now that they got rid of that 24 hour connecting thing they don't have to do that, so now the Xbox One will work wherever the fuck you are.  However I don't think it means that imported games will work, I think region locking on games is still the same.

So well done game fans, you did a good thing!  All the rage that came from E3 caused Microsoft to take a step back and realise that they can't just abuse consumers like this.  Maybe this outcry will also send a message to publishers that we won't stand for bullshit season pass stuff too!

Of course, the Xbox One is far from perfect and there are still plenty of questions to be answered, but at least this news is a step in the right direction.  Within the space of a couple of news articles I think Microsoft got a lot of people to at least consider buying the thing now.

I'm not allowed an Xbox One says Microsoft

Yet another post regarding the Xbox One blunder train.  It's like Microsoft really hate money

The story is that Microsoft have released a list of countries that Xbox Live is supported in upon the launch of the Xbox One and that list isn't exactly very big.  In fact, part of the reason that the list is so small is because Microsoft have said that Xbox One won't work in Asia AT ALL at launch.

However, they have said that the Xbox One will be getting supported in Asia some time in late 2014, but Japan hasn't been mentioned at all for a release.  So that one billion lifetime unit sales seems like a bit of an insane pipe dream now that you just cut half the world out of buying your console.

But this affects me personally, allow me to explain.

Right now I'm in Sweden, and I'm getting married to a Japanese person in a few months time.  Then, if everything goes to plan, I'll be in the UK for two years before moving back to Japan with my wife and settling down there.

So, if I buy an Xbox One (which I won't now but hypothetically speaking) I would be locked out of my game collection upon my move to Japan because Xbox Live isn't supported there and I wouldn't be able to verify my games.

What the actual fuck Microsoft, what the fuck is your goddamn problem.  I get why they are doing it, it's not like the Xbox 360 did very well in Japan but to just deny the entire country access to it AT ALL is just dumb when your shooting for such massive lifetime sales figures.  What's even worse is that if you are like me, and you live in a supported country but then move to a non supported one for some reason, Microsoft will not let you play the games that you fucking paid for.

The worst thing about this whole situation is that it could have been completely avoided if you just didn't have that fucking stupid 24 hour verification thing.  Sure, I might have not been able to play online in a region not supported by XBL but at least I would have been able to PLAY MY FUCKING GAMES.

I hadn't cut the possibility of getting an Xbox One completely out of my life because I wanted Crimson Dragon and Dead Rising 3, but after hearing this, Xbox One can officially go fuck itself.  Evidently Microsoft don't want my money, fucking morons. 

BONUS KICK TO THE DICK! Here is what Don Mattrick thinks about people who can't get stable connections

Oh and by the way, PS4 is region free

Now That's Some Bullshit #6: Region Locking

Time for some more ranting and raving as I pick out one of the things that annoys me the most, region locking on hardware.

Now before I start hearing about the "pros" of region locking, I'm going to tell you right now to fuck right off.  With that out of the way let us talk about how region locking is a load of ass.  So as you may or may not have figured out I am currently living in Japan and if you have been following my story of all my games being stolen, you may also know that my family now live in Sweden after moving from the UK.

So after spending so much time living in the UK and then suddenly moving about everywhere, I have a lot of PAL video games.  Now in terms of games I own, everything Sony related I have no problem with.  The PS3, PSP and the Vita (which I don't own yet) are all region free, so all the moving around basically had no effect on that, same for the DS.  But my Xbox and Wii games, I just flat out cannot play anymore because I've moved country, and THAT is bullshit.  However, those games appear to have been stolen, so even if I was still in Europe I couldn't play them right now anyway.

That said, I own a 3DS, one that I bought in the UK, and this fucking thing is region locked too so I can't buy any games for this fucking thing because I'm living in Japan.  I don't want to hear any crap about how region locking a system is good for business or some shit.  Your average everyday gamer doesn't give two fucks about importing for cheaper prices (or knows how for that matter) and on top of that, companies are probably losing money by not allowing people like me to pay for games that aren't available to them in the country that they live in.  Disregarding that point for a second, the DS was fucking region free so why did Nintendo suddenly feel the need to lock me out of their library of games just because I moved house? Assholes

Long story short, stop fucking region locking, the companies that don't region lock their stuff aren't exactly suffering for it, so you basically have no reason to fucking do it as far as I know.