Fable 3 - Preloading on Steam

If you're going to pick up Fable III on Steam on the 17th (and The Witcher 2 and Honest Hearts and…), pre-loading has now started.
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Yayyy!!!

Well that's steam for you region locked for certain areas.

Steam does do that, and in this case you also have GFWL blocking many countries (and then Steam won't sell it there because it won't work).

Originally Posted by DoctorNarrative
Steam does do that, and in this case you also have GFWL blocking many countries (and then Steam won't sell it there because it won't work).

I never understood the GFWL regions. Are there any reasons for the region locking?

Originally Posted by Roi Danton
I never understood the GFWL regions. Are there any reasons for the region locking?

It's a highly irritating point when you are in front of international shop selling digital like Steam, dam bastard EA even refuse sell some games to my country and forever. My believing (not for EA case) is it is coming from physical shops per country with a fixed and organized release date and they don't want digital available before.

In fact in not too big shops I started see some selling games as soon as they received it ie one or two day before release date, something certainly non legal.

Originally Posted by Roi Danton
I never understood the GFWL regions. Are there any reasons for the region locking?

I'm sure there are a lot of behind the scenes things going on like license agreements or local retailer agreements and standards. MS could easily manage all that though because of their wealth and size, they just don't bother. Corporations always think in terms of investment versus return… the return they would get from most of these smaller countries is not worth their time, in their opinion.

Maybe company's who sell digital copy's should be like GOG. Select your country and Ip and no questions asked.

I have my credit card in front of me, but I can't buy it through Steam (region locked), neither through GFWL, can't order software through Amazon (only books), Best Buy, etc, shops down here doesn't sell new games… my answer to those all restrictions???> TORRENTS FTW!!!

Anyone use a VPN - Virtual Private Network - before? My mom found out about it because she owns a business and is paranoid about identity theft. She said that it would gets rid of the "N/A in your region" as well as protecting your identity.

In my country the GfWL and xbox live was not available for a long time. The reason - they didn't have it translated to czech, so the service was not provided. Of course everybody made accounts for xbox live as an UK citizen and no one really cares about GfWL

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
Anyone use a VPN - Virtual Private Network - before? My mom found out about it because she owns a business and is paranoid about identity theft. She said that it would gets rid of the "N/A in your region" as well as protecting your identity.

What you want is a (anonymous) proxy.

Except if your mother has a private network in another region, then you can VPN to it from home and access the internet from there (your pc becomes part of that private network). Read up wikipedia I'd say :-)

Originally Posted by fastica
I have my credit card in front of me, but I can't buy it through Steam (region locked), neither through GFWL, can't order software through Amazon (only books), Best Buy, etc, shops down here doesn't sell new games… my answer to those all restrictions???> TORRENTS FTW!!!

As anti-piracy as I am, I have to give you that one. If no one will sell you the game then what else can you do?

Originally Posted by DoctorNarrative
As anti-piracy as I am, I have to give you that one. If no one will sell you the game then what else can you do?

Thanks for understanding (and not mentioning the "you're stealing a car" argument). I am also against piracy, and I have a lot of original games, both physical copies and in Steam (that had cost me much more than in USA or even Australia), but when in my country some new console games can costs as much as USD$ 120 it's "understandable" why piracy is so rampant here (I live in Argentina BTW). The sad thing is that sometimes, because of region based restrictions, I had to fake my address in some digital stores just to be able to buy legal games (Playstation Store) but after buying some games they blocked my Credit Card because is not from USA, so I have to buy more expensive Playstation Store cards… it's like being a criminal and lie just for trying to be legal…

You seriously couldn't wait for Fable 3 so bad you were forced to pirate it?

Originally Posted by Dhruin
You seriously couldn't wait for Fable 3 so bad you were forced to pirate it?

I don't think it's a waiting issue, Xbox/GFW Live regions have been restricted since the service started and haven't changed much in all those years as far as I know.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
You seriously couldn't wait for Fable 3 so bad you were forced to pirate it?

Waiting? He is talking about GfWL - there is no waiting, only praying.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
You seriously couldn't wait for Fable 3 so bad you were forced to pirate it?

Wait for what?? These things (region restrictions) could take years to change, if they ever change.