Deus Ex Human Revolution region locked

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Is Region Locked

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Oh dear, someone isn’t supporting our No Oceans campaign. Square-Enix have sadly region locked the boxed retail versions of the PC release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution across Europe. Retail copies sold in the UK will only activate on UK Steam accounts. It’s a similar story for copies sold in Russia/Poland, and the rest of the EU makes up the third European region.

What possible motivation could Square-Enix have for restricting the range of choice that their European customers have when it comes to deciding where to buy their game from? Well I had a poke around, and for gamers in France, for example, the cheapest price I’ve been able to find for Human Revolution is €35.99 (or £31.51), whereas they would be able to import a UK copy for £23.49 + £4 shipping, a total of £27.49 (or €31.40). Looking at the pricing of buying Human Revolution direct from Steam, the UK price is £29.99 (or €34.25) and the Euro price is €44.99 (or £39.38). This region locking protects Square-Enix’s policy of international pricing, and prevents customers who are in the EU from being able to avoid the price hike of ~30% Square Enix may or may not have decided to bestow upon their region.

It’s interesting to look at how this reflects on Square-Enix because of the nature of the game’s development. Local market factors meant that it was most cost effective for Squeenix to open their new studio in Montreal, so to save costs they took part in the global economy, and essentially bought development man-hours from the cheapest international seller. When local market factors result in it being more cost effective for their customers to take part in the global economy, and buy from the cheapest international seller, Square-Enix have coded a solution to prevent them from being able to do so. Interesting!

It also seems as if Square-Enix have done nothing to ensure retailers inform their customers about this region locking. I’ve just checked the listing for Human Revolution on pretty much every major UK online retailer, and not one of them has any mention of this region locking. Update: Amazon have now added a warning about the region lock, but none of the other retailers I have checked have done yet.

This also troubles any customers hoping to import the UK Augmented edition, which (I believe) is the only version that includes all the game content (with other regions splitting up the “bonus content” for various retailer exclusive promotions). Sorry, if you don’t live in the UK you can’t get the “best” version of the game.

Quite what the motivation for this isn’t clear, but it’s evidently wrapped up with both serving distributors and the decision to use Valve’s Steamworks to control region activation. We’ve contacted SE asking for a comment on why they’ve decided to add these limitations to the retail version of the game.

More details on the region locking can be found in this forum thread. It’s worth noting that codes sold through other digital distributors will not be region locked, it is just the boxed release that will be locked.

All together now: What. A. Shame.

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uh oh all the retailers in Ireland are UK based and therefore import from there, basically I wont be able to buy a boxed copy in Ireland for the PC.

Loads of people will be caught out if they ordered from Amazon.co.uk which is the Amazon portal for Ireland.

Looks like I have to use that broadband now so and dl from steam.

http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=119397

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Please note this affects PC BOXED RETAIL only. The region locking exists because they couldn't get all languages onto the DVD.

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So Americans don't speak English?

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Originally Posted by Montmorency

So Americans don't speak English?

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Apparently they like the idea of using a globalised world to make the game cheaply, but they don't like the ability of consumers to source cheaper versions using same.


In Ireland I get my box copies from the local shop which is Gamestop, there from the UK so that means all there preorders are duds now. I will have to as a consequence take my business away from my local retailer and buy on steam as it is the only way to be sure (except nobody is 100% sure that steam will work in Ireland as your account could be EU or UK version)

Anyone who has bought from Amazon.co.uk but who lives in the EU/USA but not in the UK or Russia apparently runs the risk of buying a dud product.

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Originally Posted by Montmorency

So Americans don't speak English?

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They speak American, not English (as from England).

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Originally Posted by Beskar

They speak American, not English (as from England).

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'Merican!

bummer, as a steam works game i am planning to buy the cheaper disk version, register it, and throw away the disk afterwards, shame you can't do the same.

Meh, on release day I'll just start another playthrough of the original and be playing a classic when everybody else will most likely be playing Invisible War².

Invisible War squared would be superior to the original. Also, IW WAS A GOOD GAME.

I sympathize, but its kind of funny and fortunate for me that 99% of the rage-inducing issues facing PC gamers don't ever effect me.

I don't buy boxed copies, and even if I did this doesn't effect me because I'm 'Merican. Never had a problem with DRM. I never use LAN. I don't play games like Diablo offline. Etc.

I'm sure something will get me eventually, but for now: weeee!

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Originally Posted by Graphic

I sympathize, but its kind of funny and fortunate for me that 99% of the rage-inducing issues facing PC gamers don't ever effect me.

I don't buy boxed copies, and even if I did this doesn't effect me because I'm 'Merican. Never had a problem with DRM. I never use LAN. I don't play games like Diablo offline. Etc.

I'm sure something will get me eventually, but for now: weeee!

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We also cant buy any collectors editions or anything all the extra content in the UK edition is not in the EU version.

And there is a possibility that steam will not work as my steam account lets me buy the UK steam edition but Square Enix have said it wont work in Ireland.

In other words no one has a clue whats going on so people are cancelling orders left right and centre.

Hooray they backed down on the region locking :2thumbsup:

the small guy gets a win