Well, I guess I won't be buying this suite of games. Problem solved.

Valve to customers: "Stop buying our products through channels which we obviously haven't controlled properly, we don't want your business if it's not legit."

:rolleyes:

valve can go suck a tailpipe

I bought TF2 through steam. No problems. In fact I've bought many games through steam with no problems except I hated it when I first bought HL2 and I had to connect to the internet to play it the first time. At that time I didn't have the money for internet.

The cake is a lie. Oh, and valve is one of the few companies who's products are so soul-bashingly perfect for me I'm absolutely willing to ignore moves like this. Funny how that works sometimes.

While this is definitely absurd and is very poor form on Valve's part, could it really be that many customers? How many people would choose to get the Orange Box from a physical vendor when it's available on Steam. Especially if you're international, as you'll almost certainly avoid paying taxes on it? I'm in Canada, got my copy off Steam and avoided over $10 in GST/PST and the extra $5 "because you're in Canada" price bump even though the dollar is nearly on parity.

Again, this doesn't forgive abhorrent customer service from Valve, I'm just genuinely curious why anyone would opt to spend more time and pay more when there's an easier and cheaper option available? Does the Steam store not work in some countries?

@Jaysyn: You're kidding right? These guys tried to scam a deal by going through shady international sites and now are paying the price. I dont think they could honestly say they didnt expect this a possible consequence. The not being able enter a new key is a legitimate complaint, but to be fair I'm sure its something valve didnt anticipate having to deal with.

@Nelsormensch: They did this because they are selling it for around $20 US in a few other countries. This is a pretty normal practice where piracy is rampant. They hope to make commercial level priracy unprofitable and make the product cheap enough that people who would almost certainly buy a pirated copy might buy a legit copy instead.

@geekybiker: "These guys tried to scam a deal by going through shady international sites and now are paying the price."

Uh, so shopping around for a good price is "scamming"? With the Internet, buying internationally is now possible, in a way that it never was before. If anybody's at fault, I'd say that it's Valve; if you didn't want people to buy the Orange Box cheaper in another country, then they should have made the Orange Box the same price everywhere.

This is no different than the DVD region codes. (or Blue-Ray or HDVD). You can buy an American blockbuster movie in India for $5. it won't play in American players. (although some have ways around this). I see no problem with this. They are pricing their product at a price the market will bear in that country. Nobody in Russia would buy the game for $60US. Imagine how few movies would sell in India for $20US. (although with our dollar falling, it might soon be cheaper to do so.) Doesn't the old saying say, "If it seems to good to be true, it probably is!"

@Geekybiker:

Welcome to the Global freakin' Economy. Why is it that it's ok for companies to take advantage of this, but not software & media consumers. Yes, I'm looking at you Region Encoding on DVDs.

Here is the problem with Software companies also being the publisher, they have to be the bad guy when someone pulls a quick one.

The forum quote is bad Customer Service, no questioning. But to each person that did this I cannot think of any way you could get away with it because Valve is also the publisher of their software which means they're definitely able to monitor this stuff much more effectively than companies with separate publishers and developers.

Although I must admit the question why should one country be allowed to pay less and we pay more simply because we can afford it, ah capitalism.

I bought a copy of Windows Vista in a donkey trading market in Peshawar, Pakistan and it doesn't work.

I DEMAND COMPENSATION FROM MICROSOFT!!!

What gives with all the crappy game publishers out there these days? First BioShock with all the DRM crap and now this.

Reason number 17 why I limit myself to console games.

Is this the right time for "Steam Steam LOL" to be put into play..?

@QuantumRiff: Does it mention on the box that the game is only playable on US PCs? Or does it say "intended for use on?" There is a distinction there..

Just another example of people trying to skirt the system by either getting around the intended use of the product (like hacking the iPhone) or tyring to purchase a product where or when it wasnt intended to be purchased (buying games and movies overseas where they are intended to be used or before the street date) and then bitching when the company that made the item cuts them off from using it. Its always because the customer is cheap and is trying to get away with not paying retail price for something. I say good for Valve, teach the cheap asses a lesson. If they werent looking for to rip off Valve, they wouldnt have to buy it twice.!!

@winter_in_asia: Ahh console games..all the price and half the content.

But seriously how is he ripping off Valve if they pay for it? Even if its bought in Russia if its a legit game Valve still got its money. They sold it for what they thought they could get it for in that country. Yeah its a little slimey but I think Valve shouldn't be banning it.

Thats why I buy all my games at retail here in the US or thru the companies website.

@winter_in_asia: Console games are no different than PC games in this respect...you just don't see it.

All consoles have their own DRM schemas and region codes built in. PCs do not, as PCs are "open" systems, rather than "closed" ones, like a console. Thus, the game publishers have to come up w/their own way of enforcing this stuff.

@Jaysyn: lol

@skrom:

Whose side are you on?

What about people in Canada who still get charged a higher price just for being in Canada even though the "exchange rate" argument doesn't work anymore?

How come companies can take advantage of different markets, homogeneous products and digital delivery to maximize profit but we can't in order to maximize savings?

EA is the publisher, not Valve. This is a region lock issue so I'm not sure why everyone is attacking Valve.

Valve has continually produced quality product and been very supportive of the mod community. Most game companies push out title after title with rarely a ptach. Valve continues to support games they created or produced 8 and 9 years ago.

Someone buys a key from a different region and is mad because Valve has fulfilled its contract obligations with the publisher, EA, by preventing this from happening.

So baffling.

There is a huge fatwallet.com thread about this, which is I'm sure where the original complainer is coming from. Basically someone on fatwallet discovered you could get this from a Thai company for the equivalent of $20 US. It involved scanning in and sending them copies of your drivers license and credit card (with some stuff blurred out) to 'authenticate' your purchase. The Thai place would then (if you chose) just send you the serial number from the Orange Box.

Don't tell me this sounds like it is on the up-and-up. To the original poster, and his buddies on fatwallet, if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

@FREAKHEAD: Because they aren't refunding the money that was wasted, which would be the ethical way to go about it, or allowing people who did go buy it again to get what they paid for.

That's why.

@Crazytree: There's a difference between getting a crappy pirate version from some noname bootlegger and buying the official product.

Kindly get a brain or shut up.

Gee, I bought it from a foreign site for a ridiculously low price and semi-illegal means, and I'm just outraged that I'm now facing problems!

Come on, if you're an honest consumer, you'd have just bought it for $40 or whatever it was when it was on sale. Otherwise, pay the $50 or so now and suck it up.

Most of the people who try to get the games for super cheap or for free (via fake credit card numbers on Steam) are whiny 13-17 year olds. Get some common sense, guys.

Once again DRM and stupid rules rear their ugly head ruining another pc gamers day. Its almost as if PC devs and Publishers these days want that medium to die as a viable game platform.

Myself? While I already have HL2 on PC I bought Orange Box on 360 and have no game shutting off issues as of yet.

Sorry, not feeling bad for those who got themselves into trouble by trying to circumvent established policies.

If you have a problem with the company not allowing you to purchase a game overseas then don't buy from the company. Easy as that.

@XKeeper: This is akin to buying a Region 2 DVD and expecting it to work in your Region 1 DVD player. I'm not saying that regions don't suck (they kinda do) but I can understand the financial, legal (censorship in Germany comes to mind) and business reasons for having regions. Valve is perfectly in the right for denying use of specific-region games in regions they aren't allowed in.

It sounds like these people should be contacting the Asian game vendors they purchased the Orange Box from and ask for a refund. It's silly to blame the developers because the sellers aren't honoring their distribution agreements..

@Buran: Did they buy it from Valve?? Why should Valve refund the money? If I buy a game from Best Buy in Russia (its just an example) and it won't work in the U.S. then the people who made the movie should refund me??

BTW the real travesty here is the whole Orange Box concept that makes you re-buy Half Life 2 and HL2 Episode 1 to get Episode 2, Portal and TF2 at a reasonable price. And don't say 'they're just throwing those in for free' - because they're not. I already paid for HL2 and EP1 already, I don't want to buy them again. Knock $15-$20 off the price and don't include those two, then I'll buy it.

er I meant made the game

@FREAKHEAD: Steam games are bought via Steam. Unless I am missing something. So the money goes directly to Valve.

On a side note I was looking into buying Episode 2 of HL2 on Steam, and I'm SURE I saw a lower price the first time I looked than I did the second time. Are they jacking prices on honest buyers like me because of this?

@Franklin Comes Alive!: Sell them to a friend. You can "gift" the games. You can't sell on an ebay auction or anything, but I'm sure a friend could buy something for you in exchange for you gifting the games to them. I got Ep1 from a friend who bought the Orange Box.

Now, as for why I discovered a pricejack when I went back to the website to get Ep 2 ... what's up with that? Not gonna pay $30 for that when the full game isn't that much more and you get so much more. "Episodes" shouldn't be more than $10-$20. So I'm gonna wait.

@Franklin Comes Alive!: I do have to agree with you here. They had plans to offer it seperate but they scrapped it. I love Portal and TF2 and have already spent more time playing both then I do most single player PC titles.

@parad0x360: This isn't a DRM issue but I understand what you are saying.

This is a PUBLISHER issue and this is not different than the music or movie industry. Going after Valve for a very common practice. I am not saying I agree or disagree but the point is that this "problem" shouldn't be a suprise.

@Buran:

You can buy steam games in stores, and then enter a key into Steam that activates them. In that case, your money would be going to the store, not Valve.

@Buran: I'm sorry but did you read the article? They bought keys from a store in Thailand and had to fax a copy of their drivers license and credit card to make the purchase.

The price hasn't changed other than they offered a pre-order special. If you pre-payed for the Orange Box you got to beta test TF2 and got a discount. Not unusual.

@Franklin Comes Alive!: In that case, I'd be filing a chargeback for a defective good, because obviously a purchase that can't be used is defective/not as described. Make the dishonest seller eat the cost, as they should.

@FREAKHEAD: I skimmed it. But I also went off my experience buying steam games, which is, pay, digital download, done, no box. I'm also pretty sure I looked at the price after the orange box came out, not before.

@Buran: well, the price I paid was $ 44.95 for a preorder and it is now $49.00. Also keep in mind that they have it for Xbox 360 which is $59.00. I don't see any outrageous PC pricing here.

And again, they bought the keys from a retailer overseas, not on steam so again, I don't understand the outrage.

The photo ID and credit card scan are so the Thai store knows you're a legit buyer. Just like stores in the US don't like dealing with International orders because of problems with stolen credit cards, I'm sure Thailand doesn't want to deal with it either.

I think it's in poor form for Valve to be cutting off gamers even though they have every right to. They should be going after the stores that are violating the terms of sale they have probably stipulated to those foreign stores. It's better to cut it off at the source than punish all those who quenched their thirst from the leak.

@Xkeeper: So these people bought an "official product" licensed for use in the US?

Looks like I'm not the one who needs a brain... it's you and the people who thought buying a cd key from Thailand based on a harebrained fatwallet thread.

An Einstein caper, indeed.

[support.steampowered.com]

I think this is a totally acceptable course of action for people affected by the sellers in other countries.

THIS IS NOT JUST THE ORANGE BOX! People this has actually been affecting many people with their Half life 2 purchases, Counterstrike source, etc. Also in Australia (since it's so close to Thailand). Australian retailers actually purchased Thai versions, unbeknowst to the Australian retailer and sold them in their brick and mortar stores. We are talking about games up to 3 years old that at 5pm last Friday suddenly stopped working. 3 YEARS OLD!!!

This has me so upset, I don't think I will ever by a Valve product again. If it's such a big problem, why does Valve even create it to begin with? It's their fault for trying to charge one price to American consumers and then a price way lower to other regions.

@QuantumRiff: Actually region codes have nothing to do with pricing, it deals with market release dates. If they release a product in one country, they don't want people exporting that product in mass for massive profit to another country where it has yet to release.

Also just for the record, I bought my orange box from Thailand (2 copies actually) for 32 dollars a piece. I saw circuit city had it on sale for 37.99. Wow I'm so scamming Valve. I guess we just need to price fix everything, but wait... that's not legal =)

@Crazytree: Hey dumbass, if it's a legit version of MS Vista, it will work. MS doesn't make your OS only work in countries it was purchased, haha. Your problem would be you bought a pirated version. I bought a retail box and there is nothing illegal with it. If a class action lawsuit were brought against Valve over this, in U.S. courts, they would surely have a judgement put against them.

@Crazytree: As soon as you show me where, on the packaging, it says "Licensed for use in xxxxxx" and any information stating that it will be deactivated if you aren't in that region.