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General discussionEU charges Valve + 5 big publishers for geoblocking(34 posts)(34 posts)
(34 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 05, 2019
To be more precise the five publishers are Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax.

"...to prevent gamers in [for example] Germany from buying activation keys at a cut rate in Hungary, the publisher might restrict where the keys work. But doing so violates the EU's Digital Single Market rules, which aim to enforce an open market across all of the EU. The Commission also says the publishers broke antitrust rules by including contractual restrictions that prevented distributors other than Valve from selling some PC games outside of certain Member States."

Link to Engadget article here

The conclusion in the article is that game prices will probably go up, at least in the countries that had a lower price. What a weird world we live in that you're not allowed to have the good part of regional pricing but the downsides are a-ok.

I liked the part about a breach of antitrust rules tho. That behavior really should be heavily penalized.
Post edited April 05, 2019 by joppo
Posted April 05, 2019
Do you understand that "geoblocking" aka regional prices exists on GOG too? And by the same reasoning EU could come after GOG.
Posted April 05, 2019
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LootHunter: Do you understand that "geoblocking" aka regional prices exists on GOG too? And by the same reasoning EU could come after GOG.
True. So "One World One Price" will have to come back for EU countries. I just fear the "One Price" will be the highest asked in any EU country.
Posted April 05, 2019
First EU comes for our internet, now they come for our games and soon EU comes for our lives or worse...few things in our world is worse than politicians especially shitty ones that most are.

They can all go n take a hike.
Post edited April 05, 2019 by ChrisGamer300
Posted April 05, 2019
Their store, their rules. If the customers don't like it, they can stop doing business with them.
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ChrisGamer300: First EU comes for our internet, now they come for our games and soon EU comes for our lives or worse...few things in our world is worse than politicians especially shitty ones that most are.

They can all go n take a hike.
They love freedom in EU, just stop doing business with them and they will leave you alone.

Just kidding, they will fudge you good and make you pay for dinner, breakfast and Plan B whether you like it or not.
Post edited April 05, 2019 by user deleted
Posted April 05, 2019
The magic word for the cheap eastern european retail versions: Cenega S.A.
Post edited April 05, 2019 by i_hope_you_rot
Posted April 05, 2019
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LootHunter: Do you understand that "geoblocking" aka regional prices exists on GOG too? And by the same reasoning EU could come after GOG.
I asked and they said that was an oversight since because of dated information they assumed that gog.com has only one price. They are investigating gog.com right now as we speak and will contact them soon.



Kidding. No clue :P
Posted April 05, 2019
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DadJoke007: Their store, their rules. If the customers don't like it, they can stop doing business with them.
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ChrisGamer300: First EU comes for our internet, now they come for our games and soon EU comes for our lives or worse...few things in our world is worse than politicians especially shitty ones that most are.

They can all go n take a hike.
avatar
DadJoke007: They love freedom in EU, just stop doing business with them and they will leave you alone.

Just kidding, they will fudge you good and make you pay for dinner, breakfast and Plan B whether you like it or not.
Don't you worry, i don't buy from those publishers, ok i have done that on GOG though. I don't use key resellers either but i'm just sick of the EU.
Post edited April 05, 2019 by ChrisGamer300
Posted April 05, 2019
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DadJoke007: Their store, their rules. If the customers don't like it, they can stop doing business with them.

They love freedom in EU, just stop doing business with them and they will leave you alone.

Just kidding, they will fudge you good and make you pay for dinner, breakfast and Plan B whether you like it or not.
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ChrisGamer300: Don't you worry, i don't buy from those publishers, ok i have done that on GOG though. I don't use key resellers either but i'm just sick of the EU.
I don't think my point came across. Unlike those "evil" corporations, you can't actually choose not to do business with EU. And they have the nerve to claim moral high ground over Valve and other corporations whose service people actually want to pay for.
Post edited April 05, 2019 by user deleted
Posted April 05, 2019
avatar
joppo: To be more precise the five publishers are Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax.

"...to prevent gamers in [for example] Germany from buying activation keys at a cut rate in Hungary, the publisher might restrict where the keys work. But doing so violates the EU's Digital Single Market rules, which aim to enforce an open market across all of the EU. The Commission also says the publishers broke antitrust rules by including contractual restrictions that prevented distributors other than Valve from selling some PC games outside of certain Member States."

Link to Engadget article here

The conclusion in the article is that game prices will probably go up, at least in the countries that had a lower price. What a weird world we live in that you're not allowed to have the good part of regional pricing but the downsides are a-ok.

I liked the part about a breach of antitrust rules tho. That behavior really should be heavily penalized.
I am not too sure on this one, I believe it is deliberately price gouged but I am not too sure on the details.

The article talks about physical games that use an activation code, as far as I know this is a well known shitty practice by companies to justify regional pricing- the whole argument about regional pricing revolving around how much a "physical" copy sell price is set per country.

Good news as far as I can tell though.
Posted April 05, 2019
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LootHunter: Do you understand that "geoblocking" aka regional prices exists on GOG too? And by the same reasoning EU could come after GOG.
First of all geoblocking and regional prices aren't the same thing, but RP as implemented in steam led to a need for geoblocking.

Second, Gog has RP and geoblocking but the geoblock isn't used in the same way it happens in steam. Gog doesn't block you from activating a key purchased elsewhere, but it removes the price reduction on purchase if the key is selected as a gift. Gog's geoblocking is basically keeping German's sensitivities from being threatened by those evil violent games, and maybe a couple more cases (Australia?).

And lastly, think about what the article says about the outcome of Valve subjecting to the law. It is said that it will lead to raised prices — naturally it means that the countries that have a regional discount will lose it. It doesn't make sense to raise prices everywhere, for example germans already pay the highest price. It's only necessary to remove it for the less expensive countries and only when the game is bought as a key and... oh look at that! You have a system identical to Gog's! Gog is compliant already.
Posted April 05, 2019
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ChrisGamer300: Don't you worry, i don't buy from those publishers, ok i have done that on GOG though. I don't use key resellers either but i'm just sick of the EU.
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DadJoke007: I don't think my point came across. Unlike those "evil" corporations, you can't actually choose not to do business with EU. And they have the nerve to claim moral high ground over Valve and other corporations whose service people actually want to pay for.
I do get it and i'm not even surprised judging from their actions in recent years, i just hope GOG isn't in EU's crosshair anytime soon regardless of what issue.
Posted April 05, 2019
avatar
LootHunter: Do you understand that "geoblocking" aka regional prices exists on GOG too? And by the same reasoning EU could come after GOG.
avatar
joppo: First of all geoblocking and regional prices aren't the same thing, but RP as implemented in steam led to a need for geoblocking.

Second, Gog has RP and geoblocking but the geoblock isn't used in the same way it happens in steam. Gog doesn't block you from activating a key purchased elsewhere, but it removes the price reduction on purchase if the key is selected as a gift. Gog's geoblocking is basically keeping German's sensitivities from being threatened by those evil violent games, and maybe a couple more cases (Australia?).

And lastly, think about what the article says about the outcome of Valve subjecting to the law. It is said that it will lead to raised prices — naturally it means that the countries that have a regional discount will lose it. It doesn't make sense to raise prices everywhere, for example germans already pay the highest price. It's only necessary to remove it for the less expensive countries and only when the game is bought as a key and... oh look at that! You have a system identical to Gog's! Gog is compliant already.
Just for clarification. You mean the british colony with the cangoroos and not the land of Mozart, Falco and Sebastion Kurz?
Posted April 05, 2019
avatar
joppo: First of all geoblocking and regional prices aren't the same thing, but RP as implemented in steam led to a need for geoblocking.

Second, Gog has RP and geoblocking but the geoblock isn't used in the same way it happens in steam. Gog doesn't block you from activating a key purchased elsewhere, but it removes the price reduction on purchase if the key is selected as a gift. Gog's geoblocking is basically keeping German's sensitivities from being threatened by those evil violent games, and maybe a couple more cases (Australia?).

And lastly, think about what the article says about the outcome of Valve subjecting to the law. It is said that it will lead to raised prices — naturally it means that the countries that have a regional discount will lose it. It doesn't make sense to raise prices everywhere, for example germans already pay the highest price. It's only necessary to remove it for the less expensive countries and only when the game is bought as a key and... oh look at that! You have a system identical to Gog's! Gog is compliant already.
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Korotan: Just for clarification. You mean the british colony with the cangoroos and not the land of Mozart, Falco and Sebastion Kurz?
Yes, he does. A couple games are censored and/or blocked in .au not that that has anything to do with .eu
Posted April 05, 2019
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Korotan: Just for clarification. You mean the british colony with the cangoroos and not the land of Mozart, Falco and Sebastion Kurz?
I saw a kangaroo in Austria once :)
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Community
General discussionEU charges Valve + 5 big publishers for geoblocking(34 posts)(34 posts)
(34 posts)