http://www.pcgamer.com/new-regional-restrictions-on-steam-gifts-come-to-light/

Basically now gifts are region locked, and it was a fact already. New thing is, if you, let's say, redeem a gift while you are in Italy, then you'll go working/ stay in Russia, in example, you won't be able to play your already redeemed game. Basically games are now binded to the country in which you bought them, making them unable to play outside it.

Ad...this is a shame, really. Because we live in a "global" setting now, where usually people are FORCED to move all around the world in order to work. Also with crisis a lot of people are moving to foreign countries, it's not an isolated fact. Making them unable to play what they bought it's really shamefull.

Glad they're creating competition since there isn't any. This is the exact fucking reason piracy happens. All this shit between you and your game; and you have a free option up there on the torrents.

But is it also true for the so-called "drm-free" games (it hurts me just to write that) on steam?

Yes, because even if a game is DRM free, you can't download that outside a particular country if the game presents this lock.

IE you buy Doom today (it should be region free), tomorrow you'll be on Russia for three months due to work, you can't download your game. Dunno what happens if you alreay downloaded the game. Anyway games purchased before December 2014 should be safe from this.

Haha, global my ass.

Just lol.

VPN companies must be rubbing their hands.

I'm sorry for Steam users, but.. the more it becomes locked, the more users will become aware of DRM problems and fed up of Valve.
(no, GOG's restriction aren't as bad)

What I found hilarious is that, for ages, all console users complained because of region locked console unable to read games from other regions (since some games were not available everywhere). Now we have region free consolle and region locked games on a digital platform, on PC.

I understand Valve should protect themself from people purchasing games on cheaper regions, but there are also people costantly moving unable to play what they bought. Also I didn't understand if this applies only on gifts or on all games purchased directly.

Is this only regarding actual gift codes, or any Steam codes you've bought (even for yourself) on some third-party stores?

I consider it pretty sacred that if I have bought some commodity, especially a computer program, I should be able to use it if I move to another country (one of the basics with DRM-free). I e.g. expect all my games to continue working on my laptop, even if I go to Thailand, Germany or Australia, or some other backward country.

I presume though this is not the indication, but only the actual gift codes bought from the Steam store are affected by this? Yes, that's also what I wanted to know.

EDIT: Well, apparently all purchased games are affected? If so, yeah, fjuck that shit. Then again, as long as they make this clear with big bold letters while you purchase a Steam game, I guess you always have the option of not buying. I seriously hope this isn't introduces retro-actively to games purchased earlier, only to future puchases.

Your example is inaccurate as this restriction only applies to lower priced regions which is mentioned in the article that you linked. So the correct example would be that if you redeem a gift in Russia then you won't be able to play in Italy. In other words gift codes bought from higher priced regions will continue to allow you to play games anywhere in the world but if gifts are from region restricted countries as per the example screen cap in the article then the games cannot be played outside those countries.

So basically Steam users in lower priced regions that enjoy discount prices on new games as compared to the rest of the world will have to deal with the consequences

i don't think gifts etc purchased in tier 1 region free countries such as uk , usa etc have such a region limit

I moved countries before and they told me to just keep buying from my old store. I'm planning to move again in the future, so I hope this new policy won't screw me over. Mind you I don't buy keys. I buy games directly.

Oh, ok, thanks a lot for the clarification! Well, this make sense...more or less. Still, I don't like it for the reasons I already posted.

Yet nobody mentions the true reason behind the change, which is key resellers buying games in low priced regions (russia) and then selling those keys to buyers outside. Excuse me if I don't shed a tear for the US or UK buyer who got cheap games from Russia and Brazil and now can't use them anymore.