I bought a south park -ROW version 10 days ago . But today or yesterday - i dont know when - game returned to Ru version :(
unbelievable, thank you for posting. glad to hear that we were not the only one and great to hear that it is in fact a steam error on their side. really appreciate it...
I think Many south park owner has that shit. ALl games returned to region lock version. My keys and south park gone. bb eric cartman :(
OMG! Poor you :S Fortunately I was hesitating buying a copy for 10 keys, but waited enough to fix the price bug.
How BS is that tho. How are we suppose to know if a game is region locked or not during the initial trade. THEY don't exactly specify unless otherwise noted, such as RU. Pretty pissed at that. I've traded dozens of copies, but I don't know exactly if they are RU or not. Now multiply that by thousands of people, and you've got a BIG issue. Right now, only one person came to me saying their gift became RU, but would not be surprised if more added me back again. I don't have the keys to refund them, and I shouldn't. Nor should they NEED to ask, they should get EXACTLY what they traded for. An untagged game. And NOT suddenly turn it to RU. Imagine if you traded for an unusual, and they suddenly say "oopps, it's doped, but we'll give it back to you. normal quality tho." How F'ed up is that. People traded for unmarked, they should get unmarked game. The fact that whether or not it was originally RU shouldn't matter, since it was not marked DURING the initial trade, and it was their store issue in the first place. They can EASILY deter things like this from happening if they just be more specific about region restrictions, instead of just the common RU and untagged.
Anyways, getting pretty annoyed right now. Spent 2hours trying to sort though this, not getting that time back :/
Yeah Steam should have left that alone. Anyway after this I think SP:SoT sales will be less. They should have left that bug, because for a little price, they got many costumers. Now only those people will buy it, who really want it. Anyway does this affect already redeemed copies too? Like Steam will notify them that they can't play it, because of Region lock? Bad joke Steam VERY bad joke, and it isn't 1st April. Fortunately I got SP:SoT for 46$ with a quarter month subscription to my favourite gaming magazine. I'll get a retail copy, and I hope it will be redeemable on Steam. Anyway good luck in fixing these things, which Steam f*cked up :/
ketum,
Are you in the process of trying to contact steam support right now? The person who notified me of the RU tag, he contacted steam support and is awaiting their response. Yes they are a bit slow, but hopefully it can still help. There are power in numbers, and if enough contact them, they will be sure to respond back in some way. We still have 2weeks until the games release.
lol, you call it fortunate, that you paid too much? i bought directly after the game was available for preorder. i paid 9 or 10 keys, and since i activated it immediately, i have a pretty cheap, non-RU copy of the game (even with the elements that are normally censored in my country). that is what i call fortunate. ^^
I really hope it stays that way, I did the same and my copy still doesn't list any regions. But THIEF did otherwise, and it won't preload now thanks to a bullshit retroactive region lock. Fingers crossed that it won't happen to SP, but I'll remain on the skeptical side until the launch. Otherwise, Steam support will love me this next two weeks.
how exactly do you mean that? did you activate thief, when it was ROW, and while already in your library, it transformed to RU??
It was ROW on activation, and now I can't preload it. It was locked not only for activation, but also for installation and playing. Seems not to be the case for South Park. Yet.
Well, South Park isn't available for pre-load yet so it might be the same.
Anyway, did Thief unlock or no?
Not yet as far as I know. I have more faith in South Park, Ubisoft deleted the retroactive locks for their games, but Squeenix did this thing for the first time if I'm not mistaken. Anything could happen there...
yes same problem here, with Rust and Thief. But Rust has been fixed. Thief, who knows? But reto locking is bs
Well wait for the release, or Pre-load. Maybe you get your game region locked, maybe not.
I activated mine as soon as I got it a couple weeks ago. It should be safe, I would hope?
I did the same for my copy. And atm, no idea tbh. Checking account info at top right, seems to not say RU. Seems to only affect copies which were traded, but not redeemed. Screenshot for those that want to compare: http://i.imgur.com/YhpimK4.png
For all who it may concern, this EXACT same thing happened with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag PreOrders.
I hope they lift the block on copies that were purchased PRIOR to this change. They've done it before, they can do it again.
Mind you, this also happened to any copy of Rust or Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition you might have traded before. It's really random for them to do it on a game that's already been out for quite a while too.
Wow, no idea about AC4. And yeah, looking around Rust as affected as well. Hopefully they can turn it back. Such a cheap move imo. Esp considering the game "region error" was out for weeks, I mean come on, that's like thousands of copies that got affected.
I'm one of those who traded with mrcrono and had that bad surprise today. It was my first steam trade, everything went fine, gift was non-restricted, and I just let it sit in my inventory " I've got it now, no hurry " I said to myself... This morning, game was still non-restricted, so I went to university and when I came back, game was tagged as RU version.
As I said, I'm a total newbie with all this steam trade stuff, but the game was unrestricted right after the trade. I don't think mrcrono is faulty at all, and other stories suggest that he's not the only trader with this issue right now.
We are now talking on steam chat to find a solution to this issue, and this guy offer one of the best after sale (trade) service I can imagine. He's patient and explains everything, he even provide links so you get the basic info. Can't be mad at him unless I have proof this was intentionally done, which doesn't seems to be the case.
Let's hope this will ends like AC4.
my rust and thief gifts turned into RU but in gift discription is said that they are row,wtf?111
my rust and thief gifts turned into RU but in gift discription is said that they are row,wtf?111
hmm interesting... maybe they are starting to turn some RU gifts back into row. very weird...
they moved it here :- http://www.reddit.com/r/SteamGameSwap/comments/1ygvjr/announcement_steambot_is_still_funky_region_lock/
Wow, much bigger problem than i thought. I feel so stupid for not checking there first :/ Spent alot of time trying to put things together, and there it all is lmao. Appreciate it!! Great update!
good thing i didnt accept http://postimg.org/image/mx98c1e9d/ then :P jokes aside yeah this retroactively locking can do some serious damage those who stocked on SP,theif,banished and must be suffering heavy losses.
Oh lmao, forgot bout that XD hope youve cooled down and not so mad anymore :p
yeah funnily enough i might be banned on outpost for 24 hrs for reporting you >.> but that aside its become rather common i have trade offers in which beggars say please give game or just please and send trade offers for 1 rec for my bud or some more amusing 1 scrap for blops 2 saying its worth crap out of the 5-6 trade offers i get everyday in the past 2-3 days have been like that it gets annoying, but anyways back to the topic South Park and Thief still havent been unlocked which is sad.
Thinking thread was closed, and all games being RU tagged got directed into a commen pool here: http://www.reddit.com/r/SteamGameSwap/comments/1ygvjr/announcement_steambot_is_still_funky_region_lock/
The game was recently updated, as you can see here: South Park™: The Stick of Truth™
The reason for the lock according to what I read is the glitch RU people used to get the ROW version by using the Javascript bug. So far, only those versions of the game were changed to RU.
Rust, Payday 2, 7 days to live, Banner Saga, Thief and others are affected too.
In any case, it's not Valve's fault, if the publisher states that these purchases must stop and the glitches copies retroactively locked, then the distributor has to comply, terms and conditions or service with them etc. That's why they are getting the same tag as Metal Gear Revengeance to prevent regional trading.
Just got an answer to my ticket, link to the message they sent me : http://imgur.com/4EF8E4Q
Thief 2014 code from AMD reward is worldwide. I can confirm this since I bought one.
Only thief steam gift are affected.
Who was the moron that reply that Support Ticket in the first post? Why is Steam Support so retarded? God. Brainless people working and we get this shit.
Ubi forum thread here : http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/840041-Ubisoft-again-retroactively-locking-Steam-copies-of-South-Park-after-AC4-incident?p=9549741#post9549741
Everyone with a copy that locked AFTER transaction please post there so Ubi hear from us.
More people are contributing to the Ubi forum thread, keep going! Link above in my previous post.
Ubi thread merged/redirected : http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/829898-region-confused-south-park
Check the link to see what Square Enix Quoted about Thief lock. Also I tried to record the convo but my rec. failed :(
http://www.reddit.com/r/SteamGameSwap/comments/1ygvjr/announcement_steambot_is_still_funky_region_lock/cfnli1d
Steam answered to my second ticket. First answer is the one linked in OP post. Second answer goes as following :
"As previously stated, if you wish to obtain an alternate product please use our trading system to find a trading partner in the appropriate region.
We cannot make changes to territory restrictions.
Thank you for contacting Steam Support."
They don't seem to understand the words " this is against the law ".
Called at Ubisoft, they told me " we already know all of this and you can't talk to anyone else at the moment regarding this issue as nobody has further information, I'll open a ticket and send you an answer by e-mail when there are any updates on that matter, in 1 or 2 weeks. "
This is translated as I made the call in French.
Pretty lame answer from them, but I understand that the telephonist has probably no clue about this specific problem.
Just got an answer to my Ubisoft ticket. First of all, this is a crappy google translated message that makes little sense in my language (lol) so I'll translate it below.
Merci de votre patience, j'ai contacté note lead pour South Park et il avait un peu plus d'information.
Parce qu'il y a beaucoup de choses qui sont bloqués dans le jeu pour régions spécifiques, il était nécessaire de limiter les clés par région. Pour cette raison, je ne crois pas qu'on peut débloquer le jeu que vous avez acheté.
Dans ce cas, on recommande de contacter Steam pour voir s'ils peuvent faire une échange pour la bonne région ou inverser l’échange. Nous ne pouvons pas ce faire parce que nous n'avons pas d'access directe au systeme de Steam.
Si vous avez d'autres questions, n’hésitez pas à nous recontacter.
Si vous souhaitez répondre à ce message, merci de cliquer sur ce lien.
Nous considérerons que votre problème aura été résolu si nous sommes sans nouvelle de vous après les quatre prochains jours.
Cordialement,
Le Service Client Ubisoft
Translation :
Thanks for your patience. I contacted our lead support and he had a little bit more information on this issue.
As they are many "things" that are region blocked in the game, it was necessary to lock the keys by region. For this reason, I don't think we can unlock the copy that you bought.
In this case, we recommand you to contact Steam support to see if they can't revert the trade or swap your copy for a copy that is non restricted in your area. We can't do such a thing as we don't have direct access to the Steam system.
If you have furether interrogations, contact us blablabla... "
As for Steam, they now states in their ticket response that "We cannot make changes to territory restrictions."
The funny thing is they are answering this ticket because they did a change in the territory restriction. . .
Friends, please, don't let them become like the cable company! We need to make more pressure on them so they stop rubbing their tits while they answer to us (now let's see whose a good South Park fan :P)
on the same boat with a copy of South Park that has been retroactively locked to RU. Sent a ticket last week to Steam Support but i've yet to receive a response. I will contact Ubisoft once I get a reply from Steam, though I suspect they will shrug me off like they did with everyone else.
I got a copy of Aliens: Colonial Marines back when it was on pre-purchase and activated it the minute I received it. However, it was later locked even though I had already redeemed it and I was unable to play the game.
After contacting support, they simply said that it was locked from the beginning (it wasn't) and that they couldn't do anything about it. So don't expect your already redeemed copy to be playable.
This is very possible. But I think what people are counting on is that they have the non-RU version. My account shows SubID (32186) not the RU version SubID (32183).
The main difference you'll notice between these two items is the 32183 (RU Version) has "onlyallowrunincountries" enabled, while 32186 does not. That doesn't mean this won't change in the future. But as of right now, it's good news.
any one ot anyjoy from steam ?
I am probably going to draw pictures for them :(
got this email from steam
Hello Paul,
Unfortunately, we will be unable to assist you further with this issue.
These gift subscriptions can be used to trade with other users via Steam Trading or returned to the person who gifted them to you.
great
Steam gave me the game back as a gift but I don't know what to do with it now?
Ubisoft closed the topic on their foruns, saying that we have to contact steam, and steam say to us to contact Ubisoft. What a deal. I think I just gonna download the 'alternative' version. And Ubisoft, that was going to get my money for Watchdogs also, now gets nothing.
South Park works if you guys activited the gift prior to the lock.. Good news for most people, unfortunate for those who did not activate :(
I'm wondering if it works if you use VPN just to activate it, since the sub id doesn't have "onlyallowrunincountries"
Please give an update if this works, and if possible give some instruction on how to activate it this way as I'm totally unfamiliar with such procedure, and still have an unredeemable copy sitting in my inventory.
I wouldnt try that. Ive used VPN for many games, but only for unlocking games ahead of time for the region time sensitive locks. Using for activating games locked specifically for other regions or for faking location for buying cheaper games, there are reports of valve giving bans.
What if I transfer the game to a new account created specially for running this game alone? Would suck as I won't have the achievements associated with my usual steam account, but what would I do to be able to use my 40$ game that I legitimately paid for :/
no idea, but quite a risk. from what ive heard, steam does know of when people are having multiple accounts as well. so they may associate that new account with your main one and probably affect both of them.
hmm yeah, southpark is in the same boat. odd that they reversed all those other games, but left theft and sp locked :/
I wrote a ticket to Ubisoft Support and the guy is like "wtf is happening" lol. :/
IF YOU HAVE HAD YOUR GIFT COPY THAT WAS PREVIOUSLY UNMARKED SUDDENLY BECOME RU, PLEASE EMAIL SUPPORT AND POST ON THE UBISOFT FORUMS!!!!!
Source and credit: Current Reddit thread posting up to date information. Old Reddit PSA Thread initially first discovering the games being locked.
What's going on?
There have been many reports of games suddenly being region locked. This is happening retroactively and on new copies. Games which users have traded for, during the initial trade for the games WERE untagged or ROW, that are now suddenly turning RU while sitting in their inventory. IF you have activated a gift into your inventory, you should be fine.
South Park now officially works had you redeemed the gift prior to the lock
What does this mean to you?
It means that the games you already traded for may not be available to you. For the near future, triple check what you are trading for and be extra careful with the games below. Steam has a history or reversing these locks, so just wait it out and don't burn the house down yet.
List of games currently locked in the STORE
South Park, Thief, Hawken, Kerbal Space Program, Men of War Assault Squad 2
Previously locked games, that are now unlocked
RUST, Banished, 7 Days to Die, Asseto Corsa, Banished, Banner Saga, Divinity: Original Sin, Deadfall Adventures, Hegemony Rome: The Rise of Caesar, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Kerbal Space Program, Payday 2
What is happening now
Valve is in the process of removing the new RU tags. They have done it in the past, and they are doing it now. So far, most games has been reversed and has their new RU tags removed. Valve has done this before on certain Ubisoft Preorders such as Assassins Creed 4 and XCOM. For AC4, Ubisoft has claimed it was a mistake on their part. Pretty much only thing we can do is email them to show our intense backlash. Several users from reddit have reported to email support, in which they reply back with pretty much a cut/paste automated message. Here is a screenshot of Steam Support replying and they do not seem to be reading his original message at all. They are claiming his copy was to be restricted in his region, despite NOT having the RU tags during the initial trade. But rather they have edited his gift post trade, while it was in his inventory. I'm sure they are very much aware of the situation, and by showing your backlash and requests more and more, Support will be more likely to remove the RU tags like the other games. Currently, those who have the game tied and applied to your account right NOW, should be fine and have no issues. This is currently only affecting those who have traded for a game, but NOT redeemed them to your account. Or those who have saved a game into your inventory. For example, those that has South Park redeemed into your account before the new RU tags, this is what the gift appears to be on account information. If you have the game in your inventory. I would suggest NOT trading the game away right now, and emailing Steam Support instead. You don't want to make things more complicated, and will likely lower your chances of getting your non RU gift back. Also as well, If you wish, feel free to post in this new Ubisoft Thread about South Park and their region locks.
OLD PSA Thread for those that wish to read.
IF YOU HAVE HAD YOUR GIFT COPY THAT WAS PREVIOUSLY UNMARKED SUDDENLY BECOME RU, PLEASE EMAIL SUPPORT AND POST ON THE UBISOFT FORUMS!!!!!