Xbox One Xbox Live Cross-Region Purchases

[Brendeth]

I have heard of three ways of this being done, either by people in markets without the Xbox One or just markets with people whom want cheaper games (That's me), those methods are:
- Changing region permanently to pretend you are a US\CA citizen.

- Changing region to download a title and then switching back to your actual region afterwards.
- Keeping your Xbox One on your region, but looking for and purchasing games via Xbox.com.

All of these methods seem to use Paypal as a means of purchasing, but I am just wondering if anyone has tried the above methods and had any success at all?

[neoadorable]

Disc games are of course completely region-free, you can import away. Downloadable content is also region-free, BUT can only be downloaded from the store of the locale you pick upon first setting up your X1. It's important to note that for X1 account locale and system locale are totally separate. They did this specifically to allow free importing, de facto releasing the console worldwide. On Titanfall pretty much everyone i play with is from Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, places where X1 isn't technically available.

 

When MS said the release locations are just a formality they need to follow due to language and content optimizations, surprisingly they were not lying :|

 

Not sure if this answers you questions. Look at this page: https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/system/locale-faq

 

This page might as well be titled PLEASE IMPORT NOW. I think you can change locales quite easily for the system (not your MS account), and also there's no need to pretend you're from the US or wherever, they don't care for X1.

 

Another change that took place after X1 launched, but MS as usual forgot to mention it even though it's a good thing, is that now Xbox Live Gold accounts are global. No more getting new ones if you move for work, as i do.

 

EDIT: i think there's a limit on how often you can change the locale of your X1, so changing it just to buy one game and then changing back may not work. Even if it does, if you start abusing it the system may take notice. I wouldn't mess with that too much. From what i've seen digital prices are adjusted, so you won't save much anyway.

[GotBored]

From what i've seen digital prices are adjusted, so you won't save much anyway.

 

Brendeth is from Australia our retail and online prices for new games is $100 when the same game is sold for $60 in the US and on the US XBL store.

 

With the exchange rate it costs $65 AUD to buy a US game (saving $35 AUD per purchase)

 

So he would save a fair amount same as anyone else in Australia.

 

Brendeth I'd suggest importing games (physical disc) rather than changing regions, its takes a bit longer to get the game and costs a bit more due to delivery time and costs but you still save heaps. Discs are region-free for games on both the XB1 and PS4 so imported games work. (Blu-ray movies are region-locked though so can only play movies bought in Aus to play on Aus console).

[neoadorable]

That is a significant savings. I'd also suggest importing then, though i suspect with shipping you won't save as much (to get the game in 1-3 days it's typically US$10 per game from my experience, which is a lot). I would not recommend constantly changing the system locale - if possible, change it to US permanently, but make sure you have a US CC or can get US value cards.

 

So in US$ how much is an X1 game like Titanfall in Australia? Surely software can't be that expensive.

[Brendeth]

 

Brendeth is from Australia our retail and online prices for new games is $100 when the same game is sold for $60 in the US and on the US XBL store.

 

With the exchange rate it costs $65 AUD to buy a US game (saving $35 AUD per purchase)

 

So he would save a fair amount same as anyone else in Australia.

 

Brendeth I'd suggest importing games (physical disc) rather than changing regions, its takes a bit longer to get the game and costs a bit more due to delivery time and costs but you still save heaps. Discs are region-free for games on both the XB1 and PS4 so imported games work. (Blu-ray movies are region-locked though so can only play movies bought in Aus to play on Aus console).

 

 

Yeah I have imported games in the past via OZGameShop as they are pretty good value and offer free delivery from the UK. I'm just super impatient haha.

 

That is a significant savings. I'd also suggest importing then, though i suspect with shipping you won't save as much (to get the game in 1-3 days it's typically US$10 per game from my experience, which is a lot). I would not recommend constantly changing the system locale - if possible, change it to US permanently, but make sure you have a US CC or can get US value cards.

 

So in US$ how much is an X1 game like Titanfall in Australia? Surely software can't be that expensive.

Titanfall is the best example as it is new.

So on Gamestop,com the price is listed as US$59.99 which translates to AU$65.6772

EBGames is the Australia version of Gamestop and offers the game for AU$99.95 which equates to US$91.2896

This is pretty standard here, Adobe CS6 retails here for over a thousand dollars extra!

 

[neoadorable]

What the hell, what kind of salaries are you people making? I indeed checked the Xbox site for Australia and Forza 5 is like $90 Australian, which is just over $80 US? Ridiculous, assuming incomes are more or less on par. Unless living standards in Australia are much higher, not sure why this is the case.

[GotBored]

What the hell, what kind of salaries are you people making? I indeed checked the Xbox site for Australia and Forza 5 is like $90 Australian, which is just over $80 US? Ridiculous, assuming incomes are more or less on par. Unless living standards in Australia are much higher, not sure why this is the case.

 

Our salaries are a bit higher but it doesn't justify the huge price hikes we get on most products.

 

I did the calculations on a separate thread and we earn roughly 15-20% more based on average wage yet we pay anywhere from 50-400% more on products. We actually have products we export out to the US that are cheaper to buy in the US than they are here in Australia..

 

Inflation in Australia just went through the roof, everyone over-charges for everything now.

 

Also the Government in Australia is cutting away old age pension and substituting it with superannuation. Superannuation is basically a percentage of your wage is put into government funds and once you retire you get that money back in one lump sum or in a fortnightly payment method. Due to the cost of living in Australia being so expensive I'm guessing a lot of people will be moving out and retiring somewhere else.. So expect a lot of geriatric aussies coming to Florida in the near future to retire.. 

[neoadorable]

As if Florida doesn't have enough of that! Not the Australians too! Good thing very few (sane) people move to Chicago to retire...

 

Sorry to hear about the situation there, though to be fair i've never spoken to a single person who ever thought prices where they lived were reasonable. It's like asking cabbies what they think of the economy :laugh:

 

But i understand your point. Is it taxation? What's the sales tax like? I mean you guys do have some issues...seriously, what kind of democracy technically FORCES people to vote? Kinda defeats the whole purpose of the exercise, no? :wacko:

[George P Global Moderator]

The price difference between markets often comes down to taxes, though I don't know why Australia has such a high difference compared to other markets, shipping costs + taxes maybe?  I mean it's a long flight just to get there let alone ship something by boat and so on.

[GotBored]

The price difference between markets often comes down to taxes, though I don't know why Australia has such a high difference compared to other markets, shipping costs + taxes maybe? I mean it's a long flight just to get there let alone ship something by boat and so on.

Distance wise we are a lot closer to countries that manufacture majority of our electronic devices like China so shipment costs should be cheaper. Sales tax wise we pay 10% GST on everything on top of profits tax which can be up to 45%. If a company buys a product for $1 and sells it for $2 profit tax will be charged on that $1 they make plus GST. So on $1 profit they can pay up to 55 cents in taxes. If they import the product then they have to pay a import tax before-hand then profit+GST tax after sale. We also have a carbon tax on top of that and some products are additionally taxed that the government decided to tax higher to try minimize usage called the excise tax for products like tobacco and alcohol.

High taxes + businesses trying to compensate against taxes to turn a profit = very high cost of living in Australia.

[neoadorable]

Figured it was taxation. Games for Xbox and Playstation devices distributed in APAC are usually made in Singapore, which isn't that far from Australia, so it can't be shipping. Though games for NAFTA being made in the US or Mexico does help keep costs down a little. It must be your high taxes, which in turn i'm thinking buys your better infrastructure at least? I mean you do need a Titan to navigate some of the potholes in Chicago.

[The_Observer]

i get people from neowin to gift me games on steam from theere US store (in which i pay for) Im looking for the cheapest deal! if companys are aloud to move there production off shore i should be aloud to do the same!

[Raa]

It still surprises me that people overseas don't know how badly we get shafted.

Okay sure salaries, cost of living, shipping, gst, whatever... That doesn't change the fact if I buy something digitally from the same location our USA friends do - we still get charged more. :/

 

Having had that rant - I've done the region change before on XBL, but payment was always a bit iffy as it tries to detect the country for payment and often fails with the bank. Even Paypal didn't always work - so worth keeping that in mind.

I ended up using a CC service in USA (usunlocked.com) to do my purchases. Paid a bit extra in fees, but still saved overall.

[George P Global Moderator]

It still surprises me that people overseas don't know how badly we get shafted.

Okay sure salaries, cost of living, shipping, gst, whatever... That doesn't change the fact if I buy something digitally from the same location our USA friends do - we still get charged more. :/

 

Having had that rant - I've done the region change before on XBL, but payment was always a bit iffy as it tries to detect the country for payment and often fails with the bank. Even Paypal didn't always work - so worth keeping that in mind.

I ended up using a CC service in USA (usunlocked.com) to do my purchases. Paid a bit extra in fees, but still saved overall.

 

We know it sucks but that's how taxes go, they don't only impact you but also the seller of the item, even if it's digital they're getting charged something.  It's the same here in the EU with VAT, we hardly get the same level of sales the US gets for things, they're always higher and when talking about games, because the market for me is one of the smaller ones the price on physical copies hardly comes down anywhere as fast as it does in the bigger markets where a month or even a week later you can go into a Walmart or gamestop and get a disc for $20 less etc.

 

So far through steam I've used other means to buy a few games, like paying friends in the US to gift me a copy, did that with AC4 when it was on sale for $20 and because of the exchange rate in my favor I only spent 16euros.   Did something similar with Thief and only ended up paying 22euros thanks to a pre-order deal that was going on.   You'll have to jump through some hoops but you can buy from outside when it comes to digital, some good deals on pre-paid XBL cards would be one way, as long as you have the money in your account it should work without issue.

 

The day they allow people to gift games on XBL will be a great day though, hope it happens.

[Guest]

I bought Battlefield 4 Premium on the US store via the methods you've mentioned and it works great on my UK Xbox One.