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Stricter region locking quietly implemented on Xbox One?

T

Twinduct

Member
My brother's having trouble with his games here in South Africa since the upgrade.
US account, bought the games through Marketplace with a Credit Card.

It worked fine after the update, but since this morning he's been having trouble with launching them. Sometimes getting the error and other times asking him to check his connection, even though it he could stream netflix fine.

Still waiting to hear from support about the issue.

Assume it's just a bug tbh. He's not getting that error code every time.
 
mysteriousmage09

mysteriousmage09

Member
I wasn't left with much confidence with MS after I read this. Marc Whitten on the DRM removal.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=596936
Microsoft’s eyebrow-raising reversal of its Xbox One DRM policies has been in the works for some time, corporate vice president of Xbox Marc Whitten has said, but Microsoft wanted to tell the “complete story” before it made such a dramatic public reversal.

Speaking to Polygon, Whitten agreed that public opinion – cited by Xbox executive Don Mattrick as the primary motivator for the changes – has been strongly against DRM policies ever since they were first hinted at during the Xbox One reveal.

“What we wanted to do was tell our complete story,” Whitten said of the delay in letting gamers know things had changed.

“We knew our complete story was partially told at the Xbox One unveil and partially told at E3. We wanted to put our story out there and show the great games we have coming. We did that and people gave us a ton of feedback.”

The “complete story” included a number of features which, thanks to today’s reversal, have been thrown out the window – sharing your games library with up to nine other household members; taking your full games library to a friend’s house just by logging in on their machine; and the ability to play without a disc. These conveniences weren’t enough to keep gamers on side, it seems, so Microsoft has returned to a more conservative model.

There are some positive changes though, notably that the console will be region-free, but also should you take your disc to a friend’s house and install it there, they have the option to purchase it after you leave, saving them the hassle of getting their own disc; it will be as if they bought it from Xbox Live.

It’s worth remembering that the DRM changes don’t make the Xbox One an offline console; games which require cloud processing will need an always-on Internet connection, like any MMO or online multiplayer game.

“You have to be connected [for cloud processing to work]. All of the things that require the internet will require the console to connect. We want and expect most people to take advantage of those things, but we also want to give people the choice that they can play offline,” Whitten said.

Finally, Whitten could not give any reassurance that Microsoft will not change its policies in the future.

“There are our policies and we are really excited about them. By adding them we have shown that we are definitly listening,” he said.
Click to expand...
 
Derpcrawler

Derpcrawler

Member
Just woke up and checked my DR3 again - it's working fine now. So either that was a bug/glitch, or they reverted the change (if there was any) in past few hours.
 
F

Friction

Member
Derpcrawler said:
Just woke up and checked my DR3 again - it's working fine now. So either that was a bug/glitch, or they reverted the change (if there was any) in past few hours.
Click to expand...

You had me scared there. I'm also in an unofficial xbox country and bought all my games digitally. Never had problems. Glad it was only temporary. *phew*
 
J

John Caboose

Member
Swede here, bought all of my seven games from US Xbox Store except the FIFA code I got from my Day One console (German). Everything working.
 
Q

Quadraphonic

Member
Funny how if we got this error on the Xbox 360, we'd chalk it up to a temporary glitch.

Now our trust of Microsoft has eroded so much that we instantly assume they got caught doing something and did a quick revert.
 
T

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
Sounds like my assumption could be correct, Xbox Live store purchases are not affected/region locked and that this is related to Xbox One digital game key codes that are restricted to a specific country or region and Derpcrawler was probably affected by something else.
 
L

LiLSnorpSnorp

Member
Do people really think everyone who has an Xbox is going to wake up one day to an update enabling DRM and the 24 hour check in requirement?

As for this, seems like a bug. We will probably get an official response in a few hours
 
P

plufim

Member
So discs and digital purchases direct from the xbox store are region free, but codes are region locked? Does this fuck over people buying import discs with printed codes for DLC or season passes included in the box?
 
T

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
plufim said:
So discs and digital purchases direct from the xbox store are region free, but codes are region locked? Does this fuck over people buying import discs with printed codes for DLC or season passes included in the box?
Click to expand...

Depends on where you import from I would imagine. It's common practice to restrict codes printed for say Russia to Russian-only regions due to market and currency differences.
It's cheaper that way to print them. A code printed for worldwide use is generally more expensive to issue than a code for the same product that's only for say Europe, even if the cost difference is marginal it adds up in volume so it's a reasonable expense to save on. Licensing and distribution fees, woop.
 
K

Krilekk

Banned
ekim said:
Hm... I bought several games through the US store - will try them later today but last Friday they all worked fine. (ACIV, DR3 and NFS:Rivals)
Click to expand...

It's in the OP, this is not about licenses bought at the online store being revoked, it's about keys bought on eBay or shadier sources. There is no region locking, I bought every single game there is sans Angry Birds and Fighter Within.
 
Derpcrawler

Derpcrawler

Member
Tunesmith said:
Depends on where you import from I would imagine. It's common practice to restrict codes printed for say Russia to Russian-only regions due to market and currency differences.
It's cheaper that way to print them. A code printed for worldwide use is generally more expensive to issue than a code for the same product that's only for say Europe, even if the cost difference is marginal it adds up in volume so it's a reasonable expense to save on. Licensing and distribution fees, woop.
Click to expand...

Not on consoles, if anything games on consoles in Russia cost exactly the same as in EU, even more to create a leeway in case of currency exchange rate fluctuations. Games cost around 58-63EUR. And DLC pack-in codes work with any EU PSN accounts. But it's more of a problem of Sony and their stupid decision to restrict digital content to specific regions/countries.

On Xbox on other hand there is no region restrictions. That's why I was so surprised to see DR3 not working. And only reason I even checked is because I saw this thread and got nervous.

I could always redeem US/HK/TW DLC codes that came with games on my Russian XBL account, I created US account just before Xbox One launch because of cheaper prices/wider selection of Apps and games. Few weeks ago I bought Halo 4 GoTY from HK and could easily redeem everything on US account.
 
Y

Yagharek

Member
Still disconcerting that the system can bug out and lock you out of games. Yet more proof the drm plan was a dumb idea.
 
T

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
Derpcrawler said:
Not on consoles, if anything games on consoles in Russia cost exactly the same as in EU, even more to create a leeway in case of currency exchange rate fluctuations. Games cost around 58-63EUR. And DLC pack-in codes work with any EU PSN accounts. But it's more of a problem of Sony and their stupid decision to restrict digital content to specific regions/countries.

On Xbox on other hand there is no region restrictions. That's why I was so surprised to see DR3 not working. And only reason I even checked is because I saw this thread and got nervous.

I could always redeem US/HK/TW DLC codes that came with games on my Russian XBL account, I created US account just before Xbox One launch because of cheaper prices/wider selection of Apps and games. Few weeks ago I bought Halo 4 GoTY from HK and could easily redeem everything on US account.
Click to expand...
I was talking about the cost of issuing digital key codes that are bundled in games or sold directly in other regions specifically, not what games actually retail for, that's a markup that can be separate from the cost.
It's not wholesale restrictions either, normally it's up to the publisher of the game in question or the license holders to stipulate.
Reputable resellers of codes usually say what restrictions codes have, if any, so this sort of thing shouldn't be much of a problem.
 
M

Maximilian Kolbe

Member
Derpcrawler said:
Not on consoles, if anything games on consoles in Russia cost exactly the same as in EU, even more to create a leeway in case of currency exchange rate fluctuations. Games cost around 58-63EUR. And DLC pack-in codes work with any EU PSN accounts. But it's more of a problem of Sony and their stupid decision to restrict digital content to specific regions/countries.

On Xbox on other hand there is no region restrictions. That's why I was so surprised to see DR3 not working. And only reason I even checked is because I saw this thread and got nervous.

I could always redeem US/HK/TW DLC codes that came with games on my Russian XBL account, I created US account just before Xbox One launch because of cheaper prices/wider selection of Apps and games. Few weeks ago I bought Halo 4 GoTY from HK and could easily redeem everything on US account.
Click to expand...
So are you working fine now?And i think the problem code may actually are from repaired console,which may actually region locked(because it can easily sell it cheaper than usual)


Btw Xbox One's account doesn't have anything to do with region,why would you created a US account for XB1 US Live?
 
A

airborn

Member
plufim said:
So discs and digital purchases direct from the xbox store are region free, but codes are region locked? Does this fuck over people buying import discs with printed codes for DLC or season passes included in the box?
Click to expand...
No, game and subscription codes aren't region locked on Xbox One or Xbox 360.

The only regional restrictions you'll see are related to unavailable/banned content in certain markets (aka Germany).
 
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