It seems that Valve's territorial control for The Orange Box and other software has caused a bit of trouble for gamers who opted to import to save a few dollars.
Some gamers found out about this territorial control the hard way after purchasing discounted software from a Thai Web site to save a buck. According to Shacknews, it turns out that these gamers were locked out of game play in non-Thai territories as those games are only valid for play within Thailand.
"Valve uses Steam for territory control to make sure products authorized for use in certain territories are not being distributed and used outside of those territories," said Valve's Doug Lombardi.
It looks like those importers are now out of luck, and will have to purchase a copy from within their own territory to continue playing.
"Some of these users have subsequently purchased a legal copy after realizing the issue and were having difficulty removing the illegitimate keys from their Steam accounts," added Lombardi. "Anyone having this problem should contact Steam Support to have the Thai key removed from their Steam account."
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
13 comments | showing # 1 to 13
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
2:18 PM on 10.28.2007
| 
I got it on sale from Circuit city for $38 bucks, which is more than good enough for me.
Not only cheap but you gotta have some big balls to send your CC number to a place like Thailand where if its a scam your chances of getting your cash back are nil.
Steam being shit, no news there.
Still, they're better off just buying Portal, its the only good thing on the overrated box.
for those of us who regularly travel and spend parts of the year across multiple regions, it's just terrible.
then there's the fact that they use regions to delay releases (see: anything on the wii in europe), and completely price gouge other regions.