Steam question

[BigMac]

Hi

As some of you using Steam may know, not all games are priced the same on Steam for different regions (US, EU). As an example, COD4 costs $49.95 in the US. In the EU the price is $69.95 (roughly equates to 46 euro's). This probably has to do with the desire/restriction that some publishers have to align retail with online pricing. That retail overhead is different for the EU than the US I can understand, but I do not think it is reasonable to punish people that just want to purchase direct dowloadable content. Not all publishers do this, ValvE has one price for their offering in the US and EU. Another beef I have is that the Steam catalogue for the US is different than the EU. The Witcher is going to be released on Steam (if it is not yet already) but it will not be available in EU (thanks Atari )

So my question is this: when I connect to my Steam account in the US and I purchase a game, will I still be able to play that game when I connect to Steam in the EU?

Let's assume different systems but I am also interested in how this works out on a laptop that's used on both sides of the ocean. Just to be clear: I'm not looking for a way to break the law, but I am looking for a way to get games available to me on Steam that I want and at the cheapest price possible. I have ample opportunity to purchase games on either side.

I hope someone here can help me out on this one.

 

[rgeist554]

I was pretty sure that what ever games were associated with an account were playable from that account regardless of what computer they are one. To prevent piracy / sharing though, your can only have that account in use by one person at a time. So I'm pretty sure that if you buy stuff on your US account and log onto it in the EU (assuming they don't try to prevent this), then I don't see it as being a problem.

**I know Steam was forced (by a lawsuit) in Australia to jack up the prices of their games because they were vastly undercutting retail stores. (Cost of import caused the retail games to be much more expensive than the DD games)

 

[Kraynor]

As far as I know when you make a steam account and select a home country, that region is bonded to your account, and as such it wouldn't matter where you login from. If it was as easy as logging in from a different region to get money off games I'm sure a lot more people would use IP masking or redirecting techniques to do it without leaving their room

 

[San Pedro]

Well maybe you should try ip masking

 

[BigMac]

As far as I know when you make a steam account and select a home country, that region is bonded to your account, and as such it wouldn't matter where you login from. If it was as easy as logging in from a different region to get money off games I'm sure a lot more people would use IP masking or redirecting techniques to do it without leaving their room

If it was that easy then people would create accounts with different regions bound to it, right? For your information I checked and when you create a Steam account, there is no inquiry about a home country. It's most likely done on IP basis.

Btw, this also means that opening the account in the US will probably work in getting a cheaper game. Whether it will work with a game that is only available in the US zone, I would like to hear from people who tried. If this is blocked in some way that would mean again less rights for DD'd game owners because if I buy a retail PC game in the US it always work when i am back in the EU.

Also, feel free to educate me on how I can apply IP masking/redirecting and make it work with Steam.