Steam – legal way to obtain games not available in certain Steam regions

legalregion-locksteam

I'm currently living in Japan. These are the games that I want to buy but for some reason (publisher's discretion?) is not available:

  • Valkyria Chronicles
  • Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series

Is there any legal way to obtain the games? I've read that using VPN may cause a ban since it's a way to bypass restrictions and possibly get the game cheaper, but I'm not in it for the cheaps, because they're completely not in the store. If say, I have a friend from a region where these games are available, can I let him buy the game as a gift and give it to me? Would I be able to download it?

Best Answer

It actually happened to me. There was the full Commandos collection in Steam sales and I couldn't get it because it is not available in Germany (I guess why :/).

I told a (good) friend and he gifted it to me out of the blue. The games are in my library and I can download them. I guess if you don't abuse this it should be ok, but I cannot guarantee it as this is my personal experience so far.

EDIT: So, according the comments, it's important to check the properties of the game in some service like SteamDB, because it could lead to not being able to download a game in certain moment. Example:

  1. Commandos, cannot buy in Germany but can be downloaded from there: Commandos on SteamDB
  2. Dead Rising 2, cannot be bought nor downloaded in Germany (see ProhibitDownloadInCountries): DR2 on SteamDB

Thanks a lot BulliedByMods for the clarifications.

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