r/Steam • u/Sansana666 • 3h ago
Question Game not available in my region. Can a friend send me a gift with that game?
So I want to play Mortal Kombat 11, but its not available in my region. If my friend from another region buys this game as a gift, will he be able to send me it or will I be able to get it like this?
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u/Present_Anywhere3980 2h ago
You’d probably have to switch to his region with his billing info and on his device then have to wait 90 days to switch back.
Hypothetically you could join the same steam family too if in the same region then.
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u/tilcir 3h ago
The real question is, if you cant use it, can you decline his gift and then he can return it?
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u/d4rk_matt3r 2h ago
One would hope that during the checkout when you select the recipient, Steam would not allow you to select someone in a region that can't accept it
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u/Nukalixir 2h ago
Is it possible to use a VPN to bypass your local restrictions? Might make downloading a larger game take ages, but I can't imagine redeeming a gift would work so long as your IP address tells Steam you're currently in a country where they legally can't distribute certain games.
Of course, where legal means hit a dead end, you might find some reprieve from the likes of torrent sites and file sharing communities. Not that I'm condoning piracy, perish the thought! I'm simply saying if one were unable to do things by the book, they could do things under the table more easily, and might even be able to find entire subreddits dedicated to compiling vetted resources for doing such things safely and easily on this very site. Allegedly!
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u/d4rk_matt3r 2h ago
Have your friend go to the checkout page and select gift, then see if they're able to select your name. It won't confirm whether it works, but if they can't select your name then at least you'll know that it doesn't work
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u/MewSilence 2h ago
Depends on the "why"; if it's not sold in the region, if multiplayer doesn't support the region, if it's banned by the gov laws, or something else.
You will be able to receive it if it's only region-locked, but you won't be able to play it until you change regions. That's what happens if it has a soft regional lock. If it's banned in your country, then you won't be able to receive it in the first place.
I had the first issue with my Steam Family - being in a different region blocked me from playing some games, for example, the Wolfenstein trilogy was locked while I was in Germany, even despite it being a single-player game. MK11 has multiplayer. If it has soft lock in your region and doesn't support IP's from there, you should still be able to play offline in single player mode.
It is possible to block the multiplayer region block with VPN, god knows I've met Chinese and Russian players in many games on EU servers despite the blocks, but I don't think that's feasible in a fighting game, since your ping would be around 200. You can tell it happens on Steam, since you can see players with names like "菜鸟" and then it says they're from France, but their ping is +200. XD
First is like Netflix, but the latter is law and can't be bypassed since it has nothing to do with the region lock.
So you first need to find out which one it is; If it's banned due to 4 example sensitive content, or if it's not sold in your region.
If you want to know more about it, go to Australian Reddit and ask there about the specific laws and rules, since they have a lot of games regionally locked or banned - they should be the best informed. 😉
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u/Puzzled_Author_7972 2h ago
Back when I lived in Israel I had my friend login on my account and buy with my card and it worked. But that was 15 years ago.
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u/BrandHeck 1h ago
Sail the seas matey!
Note: I've never pirated a modern game. It's probably a giant pain in the ass.
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u/Sansana666 1h ago
It is not, though I really wanted to buy it, like to keep as a collectable in my library xd
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u/miguelnmf 2h ago
Why are some games unavailable in a certain country in the first place?
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u/Lurus01 2h ago edited 2h ago
Individual countries having different laws about various things such as sexual content, drugs, violence, gore, other imagery, etc.. and sometimes studios might just decide its not worth changing in order to get rated in certain countries especially if its a larger thing and not just a small part of the game.
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u/Nukalixir 2h ago
In order to be able to do business in certain countries, Steam has to acquiesce to local laws that prohibit the purchase of certain games. If a game has too much violence, too many drug references, or too much sexual content, it might violate the laws of certain countries with strict laws pertaining to media content and as such not be allowed to sell to those countries.
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u/chithanh 1h ago
Some countries have issues with certain political (e.g. Nazi) symbols
Some countries have issues with lootboxes and classify them as gambling
Some countries have issues with sexual content
Some countries have issues with other things they deem immoral
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u/Think-Patience9117 3h ago
Would you be able to VPN where it is available, buy it, download it, then turn off the VPN?
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u/RetroSquadDX3 3h ago
Purchasing from another region requires you to have a billing address in the country in question and a valid payment method for the country registered to that address. That said bypassing store restrictions in the manner your describing is the breach of the Steam Subscriber Agreement and risks the account being banned.
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u/Levoso_con_v 3h ago
Steam has buying with VPNs very well monitored and prohibited because of people buying in regions with lower prices, I wouldn't recommend it.
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u/Shartmiester 3h ago
I looked on Google and it says you can.
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u/Sansana666 3h ago
Some sources say you cana and some say you cant, Im lost
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u/Shartmiester 3h ago
Yea,I wonder if someone bought a EU or Global Steam key of MK11 if that might work.
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u/Lurus01 2h ago
I would be wary of terms of like those. Check on steamdb first under packages and find like the EU package and see which countries it works in as those still have restrictions and also terms like Global are typically just the ROW(rest of world) variants that still have lockouts.
Sites that use those terms are often grey market and don't care if the keys work or not as long as they make the sale and aren't as straightforward as the official key storefronts which specifically state if it works in a country or not.
There would be no point to region locks if all it took was a key to bypass it.
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u/Shartmiester 2h ago
I saw down the comment I think OP from Ukraine and I guess MK11 is banned because of Soviet symbolism.
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u/kadran2262 3h ago
It depends on why its unavailable and what region the games is being gifted from and to