Foreign PC games on eBay

[quadomatic]

I started browsing around eBay for cheaper PC games, and I found that a couple sellers are selling legitimate exported russian multilanguage versions of PC games for fairly cheap.

For example (shipped prices):

Borderlands - $24, $18
Force Unleashed - $18
Arkham Asylum - $18
Modern Warfare 2 - $30
Red Faction: Guerrilla - $24
Dragon Age: Origins - $30

I'm sure the single player games work just fine, but I'm curious if anyone knows anything about the functionality of some of these games online?

Thanks

 

[Lonyo]

If it's a game that requires Steam, such as CoD MW2, then avoid it at all costs.
Other than that, I don't think there's any difference. Most games for PC are played worldwide and anyone from any country can play against anyone else from any other country.

The only thing you have to avoid is Steam. Valve don't like people buying cheap copies from other areas and have been known to remove such games from people's Steam accounts.

 

[zerocool84]

FYI, many people have been screwed, including people on these boards from buying cheap new games on eBay. If you don't care about getting screwed then that's fine but if you do care don't buy them and buy legit copies from a store/website. Games that are that new and that cheap, I wouldn't even look at them.

 

[DanDaManJC]

I have bought battlefield 2 and one of the newer command and conquers from this one thai site and both games work just fine online. i havent tried any steam games though

edit:
http://www.zest.co.th/first/first_page.html

both times i just ordered a cdkey and downloaded the dvd or cd off a torrent site. both times it worked just fine.

 

[quadomatic]

I am a bit wary of it, but still, those prices are for real, since they are in fact sold that cheaply in those countries.

I also remembered that I'm going to India this winter, and I could probably pick up a few games while I'm there, and I don't mean pirated ones. They now sell new legitimate boxed PC games for quite cheap there, although this is a relatively new occurrence.

Three years ago there was no such thing, but when you have to compete with prices of 40 rupees (about $1) you'll learn to compete.

 

[minmaster]

yea i would definitely not try the steam games.

 

[quadomatic]

Anybody have any clue about Borderlands then? Only MW2 is steam based, right?

I also found Dragon Age Origins for $26+shipping, after bing cashback it's like $28.

 

[thilanliyan]

I've had luck with some of the Thai sellers on ebay. Recently bought Red Faction and bought BIA: Hell's Highway a while back and both were legit but the manuals were in Thai.

 

[quadomatic]

I've had luck with some of the Thai sellers on ebay. Recently bought Red Faction and bought BIA: Hell's Highway a while back and both were legit but the manuals were in Thai.

Were you able to play online?

update: I added the links to the ebay item listings so ppl can see exactly what I mean

 

[thilanliyan]

I have bought battlefield 2 and one of the newer command and conquers from this one thai site and both games work just fine online. i havent tried any steam games though

edit:
http://www.zest.co.th/first/first_page.html

both times i just ordered a cdkey and downloaded the dvd or cd off a torrent site. both times it worked just fine.

How do you order just the cd key? Do you still have to pay for shipping as well?

 

[nitromullet]

Yeah, I wouldn't suggest ordering any PC games from questionable sellers on ebay (especially Steam games).

 

[Sniper82]

yeah don't bother with steam games, had a MW2 game taken from my account because I bought a key on ebay from someone across seas. Guy refunded my money before I even asked. I'll know not to do that again. Got to play it for 2-3 days though

 

[quadomatic]

Does anyone have any info beyond steam games and buying cd keys? I think it's relatively obvious to stay away from those for the most part.

 

[exar333]

I started browsing around eBay for cheaper PC games, and I found that a couple sellers are selling legitimate exported russian multilanguage versions of PC games for fairly cheap.

For example (shipped prices):

Borderlands - $24, $18
Force Unleashed - $18
Arkham Asylum - $18
Modern Warfare 2 - $30
Red Faction: Gureilla - $24
Dragon Age: Origins - $30

I'm sure the single player games work just fine, but I'm curious if anyone knows anything about the functionality of some of these games online?

Thanks

That's an obvious fake. :sneaky:

 

[Adam8281]

I've bought foreign games successfully before - I just look for an eBay seller with massive positive feedback. I just ordered Dragon Age Origins for $28 shipped, new in box, from India. I'll let you know how it works once it arrives.

 

[coloumb]

You *might* encounter a problem when playing on-line:

"Distributed in India by World Wide Cd Roms under license from Activision, NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OUTSIDE INDIA"

On-line key may only be valid for the specific country which the item was originally intended to be sold in - installer probably checks your IP address or the version of Windows [USA based]...

Same thing happens when you try to use a legitimate foreign key to install Microsoft Windows on a US based machine - a message will appear notifying you of this and won't allow you to use the key.

Single player games probably won't have this issue as I've bought older titles from the UK and they installed just fine.

 

[psihog]

On-line key may only be valid for the specific country which the item was originally intended to be sold in - installer probably checks your IP address or the version of Windows [USA based]...

Same thing happens when you try to use a legitimate foreign key to install Microsoft Windows on a US based machine - a message will appear notifying you of this and won't allow you to use the key.

Single player games probably won't have this issue as I've bought older titles from the UK and they installed just fine.

hmm, if you bring back a PC with a hindi Windows and key from India, it will still work in US. Microsoft won't block it because it was from India. a legit game with key should work everywhere. It'd be far worse than any DRM used to combat pirates if they do what you suggest.

 

[flashbacck]

gogamer often sells imports for cheap. They generally work fine. The only problem I've encountered is that occasionally the imports have different patches or patched later than the US version.

 

[Malak]

Anyone who remembers allofmp3.com knows better.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

I bought two copies of DoW2 from an Indian seller and have not had any problems online. It uses Steam for game data and GFW Live for online matchmaking.

Depends on the game though, some say "Not for sale outside of X region" or "Only for use in X region" or something to that effect. I remember the box of one game intended for sale in Singapore said exactly that and steam deactivated the game for people outside of Singapore. When people complained, alve reminded them of the label on the box stating that the game was intended for use only in Singapore. So I assume that as long as there is no explicit label or warning or disclaimer on the box stating that the game is only inteded for use in a specific region, there should be no problem. My copies of Dawn of War 2 do not have any labels like that.

 

[minmaster]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=331540

 

[thilanliyan]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=331540

Buying through ebay from a seller with lots of positive feedback should be okay. I got screwed because I went outside of ebay.

 

[Adam8281]

Anyone who remembers allofmp3.com knows better.

Howso? Allofmp3 was selling MP3s without a license agreement from the record companies, because apparently this was semi-legal under Russian law. Buying legitimate software from another country is very different from this. This is not pirated software that is "legal" because it's from a country that has no piracy laws; it's official, paid for software from another country. Unless it's either illegal or against the licensing terms to use the software outside of its home country, I see no problem with doing this. The world is flat, as they say...

 

[JoshGuru7]

I think this is a practical matter not a moral matter, but it's in the supplier's best interest to make sure you cannot use software you bought from other countries so I wouldn't be surprised if they said something about it in the EULA and then disabled your copy from india. Buying games intended to be played in other countries carries a huge amount of risk because the incentive for the supplier is to prevent you from doing so.

Each consumer has their own willingness to pay and resultant elasticity of demand for a product. Ideally, the supplier would like to charge different prices to each individual person based on what they were willing to pay (first degree price discrimination) but this is problematic because there is no benefit to the consumer in telling the truth.

This leaves the Supplier with attempting third degree price discrimination - charging different prices to different segments based on aggregate elasticity of demand estimates. In this case it is based on country, but it could just as easily be based on any other demographic. Your local movie theater is using third degree price discrimination when they offer child, student and senior discounts.

It's fair game for consumers to try to get around third degree price discrimination. Business class passengers may purchase airline tickets a month in advance, gamers can purchase games from other countries, and 19 year olds may claim they are students when they aren't. At the same time you should expect the suppliers to attempt to enforce the rules - airlines will charge much higher prices if you don't stay for a weekend and movie theaters will require ID.

 

[Adam8281]

Well said, JoshGuru7, I agree completely.