In Japan, no-one can hear you [Steam]

UnabridgedCaptain

I recently moved to Japan for university, but before I did, a friend gave me a going-away gift via Steam. Before I left the US, I installed it and played a little. Now that I'm in Japan, Steam is blocking me from playing; it's grayed out in my games library, and running the .exe from the steamapps folder does nothing. The game in question is the new Medal of Honor.

Any similar experiences? What are my options here?

Librarian

I found this from a user on the steam forum:

As many publishers retain worldwide distribution rights, thus there is no need to negotiate with Japanese rights holders. This is why some games are available are some are not. Anything that requires negotiation with Japanese rights holders is not going to be on Steam.

Most EA games are not available as EA Japan would have to give permission. Which again, is why Japanese language negotiations are required.

The Activision games that are not available in Japan (but are available in all other regions) are due to Square-Enix having local retail distribution rights (they are not on Steam as Square do not have the digital distribution rights). And for whatever reason, no one has sought to determine who has the digital distribution rights for those games.

A lot of Ubisoft games are not available on Steam outside of North America. That is not a problem exclusive to Japan.

And the same helpful user by the name of {Yotsuba} explained this in another thread:

1 - If you bought a game retail (even if it attaches to Steam) and the box states it's only for use in a specific region, you will not be able to play it outside of that region.

2 - If you are gifted a game from one region to a region where it hasn't been released, you may not be able to play it until it's released either in your region or until it's released in all supported regions*

3 - If you are gifted or imported a game that is not released in your region, either over Steam or via retail (and it requires Steam), activation and installation of that game may be restricted depending on your IP address**

* As seen with Dragon Age Origins which would not unlock in unsupported regions until it was released in ALL supported regions.

** As is the case with Modern Warfare 2, which cannot be activated or installed in unsupported regions. However, once activated in a supported region, it can be played in any region.

Giggles_Funsworth

Proxy?