I'm planning to buy Dead Rising 3 for XBox One from the UK or Austria since it is banned in Germany.
My questions is: Does Microsoft enforce the law of your location? Will they restrict me from playing a game that is banned in my region?
I like the online features of XBox One so playing offline is not an option for me.
Best Answer
I believe you should be fine. While I am not in exactly the same boat, let me explain.
I own and play the Xbox One online in Luxembourg, a country where it was not sold and that is not supported as a Live country. Yet, everything seems to work fine. The only exception is downloading digital content which is sometimes IP locked. But this restriction does not seem to include patches or other online interactions, just the downloading of content from the marketplace.
Furthermore, it isn't Microsofts duty to uphold the law. But if it puts your mind at ease, Dead Rising 3 wasn't banned, it was simply denied classification by the USK. Microsoft and the publisher decided to not push their luck and get it indexed (banned) and chose not to publish in Germany. It is up to the publisher and their end-retailers to respect the law.
Since the game isn't indexed, importing and owning it should be legal. So, as you are perfectly fine with the government, why shouldn't Microsoft allow you to play the game and go online with it? Anyway, the worst you could suffer is the need to use a VPN but I would say that is a remote possibility.