Using Steam in Japan

[sj33]

Does anyone know how Steam works in Japan? More specifically, do games purchased in a different region (i.e. here in the UK) work in Japan?

Does it have it's own localised version of the store? If so, I imagine not all games will be available in Japan, which is a concern.

I intend to purchase Dead Rising 2 - should I pre-purchase this before I go? Will it still actually work once I get to Japan? I don't want to purchase the game, only to find that it is unplayable due my region being different to where I purchased it.

[noobish hat]

Only experience I have with it is when Dark Messiah came out, and my friend was trying to buy it on Steam, but apparently because it wasn't yet released in Japan, he wasn't able to. In the end, he had to get his mum, still in the UK, to buy it for him. As far as I can remember, he just got her to buy it on his account. So I THINK buying is restricted, but use of things you already have downloaded is not.

[Hohum]

If you make the pre-purchase in the UK then you'll be able to play it on the UK release.

Bear in mind that you may have to contact support regarding your account once based in Japan, as if you try to make future purchases outside of the UK they will probably block the purchase and disable your account to prevent fraud (as they expect the account owner to always be making purchases within their own country).

[sj33]

Thanks, I asked the question over at the Steam forums, and it was recommended that I get my brother to gift me the game once the released just in case the game has a later release date in Japan. That said, it appears Capcom Japan do not release games on Steam anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter which way I do it.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1420882

Y'know, I've always been supportative of services like Steam, but issues like this make me wonder why.

[Hohum]

Not really their fault though, is it? If publishers don't want their games available for purchase in a certain region, then their hands are tied. All your existing purchases are unaffected, so there's nothing to worry about in that regard.

[Number45]

It's ratings as well though I would imagine. If the game hasn't been cleared for release in Japan they're not going to allow it to be sold via any means.

Was going to suggest gifting after reading the original post, that seems to be the best way to get around the problem as long as you have someone reliable to gift it to you.

[sj33]

Oh I don't blame Valve as such, it's just frustrating. I made the switch to digital because it would allow me to take my games with me to Japan (I don't really live in the same place for long periods of time now, thanks to university). It turns out that it invites it's own problems thanks to publishers having a tighter grip over distribution, the same problems that we're just moving away from on consoles!

Ah well, it does sound like gifting will work. Cheers guys

[sj33]

Double post, but I'm in Japan now and have found something interesting - it just goes to the US store, as opposed to the Japanese one. This conflicts with what others have said, but some of my other friends in Japan get the same thing. I wonder if it's because I created my account in the UK, so it just forwards me to the US store instead of the Japanese one? Either way, that's great for me.

[tokyochojin]

I was looking at this as way of getting hold of civilization 5, although there's still no word on a mac version! :/

[Supergoal]

I use Steam in Japan and have bought stuff fine from it using a JP credit card for US software. I've never encountered a problem.

[sj33]

I'm not quite sure what store I'm being redirected to actually. I assumed it was the US store because the vast majority of games are here, everything is in English, and prices are in USD. Yet some games aren't here, like most new Capcom stuff, and Modern Warfare 2 (yet the DLC is). It seems to be some kind of hybrid of the JP and US stores. No biggie as I say since gifting apparently works, but it's all quite weird.

And there's no draconian region enforcement if you already own a game, which is nice.