XBL Marketplace - Region or Country locked?

gizmo · 02-08-2009 08:23PM #1

This question has been touched on a few times in other threads but the issue is usually US vs EU problems rather than internal EU. For the record, I can understand the restrictions of the former downloads however I'm a little fuzzy on the latter.

To describe my situation I'm currently living in Scotland with an Irish gamertag and trying to download the All Fronts pack for Gears Of War 2. When I try to download it I get the "This item is not currently available in your location" message. Now, the last time (and only other time) I got this was when I attempted to download the Flashback map pack with the code that came with the game. At the time I assumed the problem was possibly due to having an Irish account and UK voucher, thus I created a UK Silver account and downloaded the pack with no issues.

This time however the problem is with normal points which I have in my account yet I am still getting this error. While I could have just added more points to this Silver account and downloaded the pack from there it's a situation I'd like to avoid if possible as I'll probably be moving again soon enough and don't want three gamertags on the go, each requiring points for downloaded content.

The closest reference to this problem I can find online was a reply by AceyBongos to a user regarding him not being able to download a demo of The Club when he wasn't in the same country as his gamertag was registered..

Content that is not available in Germany will be locked down if you're using a UK account in another country. Sorry, but it's necessary so that Xbox 360 owners in Germany can't just use a foreign account to download it.

Is this what's happening here? Has the fact that GoW2 not being available in Germany meant that the XBL "regions" can also be country-based in Europe as well as the usual region based?

On a side note, the official MS response found here, only talks about content not being licensed for use in your country however in my case, it is regardless of whether you consider my gamertag location or my console.

pires · 05-08-2009 11:10AM

I had the same issue as my account is from california, and I couldnt donwload the COD WAW demo... In fact my original account is from Brazil, but on the time I had change to california to get more space ( this when space was a issue in emails ).

I would say that the solution would be change the country region on your own account, I couldnt find how to change my account again, so if any one know how to do it please post it.

FYI: I called to xbox support to ask then why I couldnt download, and they said was because my account was in california, but if you look my profile the account is located in IR, but there is a more deep configuration where change this, and XBOX said the solution would be create a silver account...... Ahhhh MS

CiDeRmAn · 05-08-2009 11:32AM

Same problem trying to download Xbox Indie games, they are available in the UK but not here, when I try to download them via the Xbox website I get told they aren't available to my region, arse!

greenman09 · 05-08-2009 01:09PM

U cant change the region on an account. It goes by wat u first set up on xbox live in relation to ur email. I had uk details for hotmail and irish details for xbl For instance i cudnt d/l waw maps 'as wasnt available at my location'. I had to set up a new gamertag in current region and download from that. Xbox support said that there is no way to change region even though i think they could do it in minutes

CiDeRmAn · 05-08-2009 08:04PM

So, is there a way to download region locked material from XBLA?
Give us a link to a faq if there is, that or a quick tutorial here...

jester77 · 06-08-2009 08:49AM

I have the same problem, Irish account in Germany. Most of what I want to download is not available in my location and creating a silver account is of no use as most of it is banned here anyway, ridiculous system they have. I've tried adding things to my account through the online marketplace when I'm back in Ireland, it downloads to 99% and then throws an error... so that doesn't work.

If you can find a VPN in the country where your account is originally setup then you can tunnel in that way and download stuff. Mini tutorial here:

http://www.lazygamer.co.za/wp-content/uploads/xploit.pdf

Retr0gamer · 06-08-2009 11:40AM

Why don't they just let irish people have access to the indy games? It's not like there's licensing issues or anything. Iy's one of the most stupid and annoying things MS have done.

gizmo · 06-08-2009 03:05PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Why don't they just let irish people have access to the indy games? It's not like there's licensing issues or anything. Iy's one of the most stupid and annoying things MS have done.

Is the Indie Games service available in the UK?

Oh and regarding the violent games/Germany issue I mentioned in the OP, having tested it with a few demos I found some oddities. I can not download The Club or Dark Sector (both 18s rated) but I can download FEAR 2 and Condemned 2 (both also 18s). It all seems pretty random unfortunately.

What I don't understand is that if they have the mechanisms in place to determine what country you're in and hence limit your downloading abilities, why then do they stick with the draconian practice of also using the country attached to your Live account?

XBL Marketplace - Region or Country locked?

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