Help with using my XBOX Live Account Overseas

SuperS54

I have an XBOX360 which I purchased in Ireland, am now living in Asia and a bit frustrated with the region blocking. All my Discs have been purchased in Ireland so no problem there, but many games on demand are region blocked and won't allow me to purchase from Asia. Additionally I'm blocked from any of the Games For Gold Free games which is more than a little annoying.

I contacted live support and the guy initially told me to change region to Asia, luckily I questioned him on whether my Disc based games would still work, eventually he came back and said they would not, luckily I hadn't followed his advice!

I tried using a free VPN which gave me a German IP, XBOX.Com still would not accept purchase or download tries from my PC.

Anyone have any experience with this, any get around for the region issue which would allow me to download the free games from Asia? I'm thinking of either trying another VPN service, or asking a friend in Ireland/friendly Boardsie(!) to log into xbox.com on their PC using my account details and select the download and/or purchase (would this auto download on my XBOX in Asia?).

SuperS54

Anyone?

cml387

TBH the reason you may not have got any response is that there really is no solution.

You are in a catch 22 situation as you point out, since your games are locked to region 2 but you're in region 3.
Any attempt to overcome this by "unofficial" means could lead to a gamertag or even console ban.

Maybe someone else can offer hope?

Fingleberries

cml387 wrote: »

TBH the reason you may not have got any response is that there really is no solution.

You are in a catch 22 situation as you point out, since your games are locked to region 2 but you're in region 3.
Any attempt to overcome this by "unofficial" means could lead to a gamertag or even console ban.

Maybe someone else can offer hope?

Why would changing your Xbox Live Account region from Ireland (using this official tool) to another region change your disc based games?
As long as your Xbox is physically an Irish / EU Xbox, then it will play your existing Disc-based games without any problem. It is the console region that the disc checks when starting the game, not your Gamertag region.

If your Xbox breaks and you buy an Xbox locally in your Asian market, then you could run into issue with some of the games because you are trying to play an EU game on an Asian Xbox and the game may be region locked and therefore not work. If the games are region-free, then you'll be OK. There are some sites out there that list which games are region-free (they used to be videogamesplus.ca and play-asia.com, but I've not used them in a while so may be different now).

Now, the issue becomes less clear when it comes to Games on Demand games or DLC that you may have purchased. If they are available in your new region, then it should be OK and work without problems. If, however, it's not available then you will likely not be able to use it.

Any movies you have purchased from Xbox Movies might not be available in your new region, and therefore you won't be able to access them.

The same is true for any other services (e.g. Netflix, Sky or RTÉ player) that you may have used in Ireland. They will not be available in the region, so won't work.

I hope that helps.

cml387

I understood there was no problem with games the op bought in Ireland,it was specifically DLC and games for gold that would be a problem, and if he/she was to officially change his region they couldn't play those games.

SuperS54

Perhaps my post wasn't clear, let me try again;

1) XBOX360 bought in Ireland, gamertag also registered as Irish
2) Currently living in Asia and unable to avail of the Games For Gold free games or buy some of the special offer games on live
3) Have many discs purchased in Ireland and also a couple of games purchased and downloaded through XBOX Live

What I want to be able to do is download the free Games for Gold and occasionally make purchases of games to download.

I contacted XBOX Live Online support and asked what my options were. They suggested changing region as Fingleberries suggested after checking that my current country is supported.

I queried whether my disc games would still work after the region change. They stated they would not and that it would be better not to change region.

I asked if I could have a friend in Ireland log into my account and initiate the download through either the XBOX live website or using their XBOX and would the game then later download to my XBOX when I logged in using my account. They said this would work.

To be honest the person I was in contact with on the online support didn't really inspire confidence that they knew what they were talking about so I thought I'd try here to see if anyone had experience or could help try out the login.

Fingleberries

SuperS54 wrote: »

Perhaps my post wasn't clear, let me try again;

1) XBOX360 bought in Ireland, gamertag also registered as Irish
2) Currently living in Asia and unable to avail of the Games For Gold free games or buy some of the special offer games on live
3) Have many discs purchased in Ireland and also a couple of games purchased and downloaded through XBOX Live

What I want to be able to do is download the free Games for Gold and occasionally make purchases of games to download.

I contacted XBOX Live Online support and asked what my options were. They suggested changing region as Fingleberries suggested after checking that my current country is supported.

I queried whether my disc games would still work after the region change. They stated they would not and that it would be better not to change region.

I asked if I could have a friend in Ireland log into my account and initiate the download through either the XBOX live website or using their XBOX and would the game then later download to my XBOX when I logged in using my account. They said this would work.

To be honest the person I was in contact with on the online support didn't really inspire confidence that they knew what they were talking about so I thought I'd try here to see if anyone had experience or could help try out the login.

Can you use the Irish link for Games for Gold (http://www.xbox.com/en-IE/Live/game-with-gold) to kick-off to purchase from the browser. Then it is listed against your account as a game that you own.

If you can't download it from the country in Asia that you are in, you will be able to download it when you get home to Ireland (even if it's months after the game was on the Games with Gold promotion).

It would be most important to have the en-ie in the URL in your browser when going to the Games with Gold site.

Note: If you've changed your Gamertag region, then this might not work.

SuperS54

Thanks Fingleberries, yes have been using the "en-ie" site, I think it automatically transfers when I log in.

Interestingly it appears I can download this months game "Shoot Many Robots", it accepted and says it will DL from the website, haven't been able to check the XBOX yet to see if it is actually DL'ing.

I guess the restriction must have been with Gears of War rather than Microsoft, I tried to DL the free multiplayer maps from live but it doesn't allow me to do that either.

I'd still like to be able to purchase some of the reduced games on offer at the moment but they seem to only be on the XBOX console and are not on the website. Will see if I can get a friend in Ireland to log into my account and attempt to purchase at the weekend.

SuperS54

"Shoot Many Robots" has successfully downloaded, doesn't fix my problem but it does indicate the issue is with the game makers rather than microsoft, in which case changing my account region may not help...I do remember something similar happening when trying to purchase Battlefield 2 and at the time I think the only work around was to have someone in the correct region purchase or buy the disc.