" Notice: Purchases made in <country> can only be added to your library if you are in <list of countries here>"

Seeing it often on several games. What does it mean?

Region-locked...

Some games have had this for a long time but more and more games are being restricted.

Here's a handy tool to check if a game is region-locked for your area;
http://www.regionlocks.com/

Does that mean that when i buy that game in one country and move to another i have to buy it again? Fuck steam.

Like DVD region lock, but for games...

Yes, though the limits are generally set by the devs. It's one of the prices you pay for getting CIS prices.

It means you better never come to Germany if you want to play South Park or Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Also, it is about gifting. So you can't gift stuff from poor countries to rich countries because people in poor countries pay less for their games. So rich country people could theoretically just pay the poor and they gift the game for a cheaper price. Sucks to have no free trade agreement. (Would suck more to have TPP, though!)

An example: Tropico 5 costs as much as 7.50€ in RU (4 Pack) and 40€ in Europe (single game purchase). Not sure if they region locked it yet, though.

Commonwealth of Independent States, i.e. former Soviet states. It's not really a case of rich vs. poor countries though, I hardly think e.g. the Russian middle class are worse off economically than say their counterparts in Bulgaria/Romania (who generally get the same Steam prices as the rest of the EU IIRC). Counteracting piracy is a somewhat more plausible explanation, but if it actually works in that way? *shrug*

and dont forget most Mortal Kombat games which arent region locked but indexed in germany and therefor unavailable too

What are you talking about? It says "can't be added to your library", not "will be removed from your library if you log in outside of <list of countries>". I certainly haven't been unable to install or play any region locked game after having successfully added it to my library already.

I think it not only has this for CIS region, but for other regions too. Im in latin america at the moment, and latin american countries get listed. Sucks. Cant you get those games by other means? Hmhm. :)

Tropico 5 is region locked too btw.

Take that United Soviet Kingdom !

Ow right, I thought he was talking about games that have the 'Only Allow Run in countries x' Tag. Those exist as well, but the activation ones can be played anywhere, but you can only activate them if your IP matches one of the appropriate countries.


And yes, Brazil for instance has the same region locks for some games. Most regions where prices are lower than US do.

This region locking only applies to brand new releases, right? Those that cost $60. I dont bother with those games.