A fairly known but super awesome method to get games for cheaper than usual price 100% legally (but maybe slightly unethically)

[dslisanoob]

Hi! I am new here. And since I am not sure what precisely I might want to say, I decided to make a post on a trick I really use quite often and honestly also LOVE a lot.
My sincerest apologies if this is something you knew already.

But well, due to how Purchasing Power Parity works, some stuff is sold relatively cheaper in other regions, especially when it comes to digital goods like games and software. And so one of an interesting ways I came up with (well, found on the internet but don't see being discussed on this forum) to get most apps and games cheaper on markets like google play store, apple app store, steam, GOG, etc. is setting the region to Turkey/Argentina/Brazil since these regions tend to be most cheapest ones for getting stuff at quite a good discount. With the new upcoming potential rule about customs being charged on digitally bought games (even when we already pay GST on them!), I figured that this would be something handy and something you'd definitely feel interested in looking into. And so, for existing users, try getting your region switched to Turkey/Argentina for Steam, and Brazil for GOG in order to see INSANE discounts on the games. Recently I bought 20+ games on GOG which were totaling up-to $240ish but when I switched my IP from India to Brazil, I was able to see my cart's updated amount to $110 which is more than 50% discount along with all the existing promos that exist on GOG. And so using this method, I saved a ton on my games. The best part is, I did not really have to do anything out of the ordinary while checking out either, I just switched the currency from "Brazilian Real" to US dollars (It did not change the value though, and I was still eligible for the regional pricing), and then checked out using my Indian PayPal account, and so at no point of time I "deceived them" by claiming to be from Brazil, I just happened to be on Brazilian VPN server while checking out, and they were the ones to offer me this quite amazing pricing. And well, this trick further extends to Udemy courses, Discord Nitro etc., and so while shopping on international websites, it's definitely worth looking into regional pricing, if they offer any and if you can acquire it easily.
Similarly, for steam, you might maybe use gift cards to pay. And for other stuff that need Turkey payment methods, well, you'd have to find someone who has a Turkish payment method so as to get your discount/ask them to buy for you. I figured not everyone might know this, and so I decided to make this thread (I did try looking into if this has ever been posted before but couldn't find anything about this and I am 100% sure that people would love this interesting way of saving ton of money on software and games), please let me know if this is not allowed.

 

[Sponge-Kun]

If I'm not wrong, you risk getting your account banned since the purchase are of different regions and account is used in different.

 

[kuduku]

No
Why banned , Accounts work in other country , If company wanted they can place IP block restriction
People were using Tidal of Turkey then Argentina etc , their are lots of example

 

[Sponge-Kun]

No
Why banned , Accounts work in other country , If company wanted they can place IP block restriction
People were using Tidal of Turkey then Argentina etc , their are lots of example

I don't know about other services but you can only change store country once every 14 days on steam, and you need to not have bought anything in the previous store for the last few days or Steam will not let you change region.

Also, you need a payment method and a valid place of residence registered to the country you changing the store as well. There is risk associated with it and there have been cases of steam banning accounts, not worth it imo. We already get decent regional pricing on steam. For services where you don't have a library with a lot of content, doing that might be okay.

 

[dslisanoob]

If I'm not wrong, you risk getting your account banned since the purchase are of different regions and account is used in different.

Interesting, I have never had my accounts banned in last 8 years or so
What I usually do is that I have the account made within Argentina region, and then I use the gift cards in order to add funds onto it. There are many service providers on Fiverr who offer the argentina/turkey/brazil steam account creation service.
But anyway, I use GoG more frequently than steam, and in case of GoG, an Indian card/paypal works just fine with international transactions enabled even if your region is set to Brazil, they do not ask for anything.
Steam too usually doesn't "ban" these accounts unless you do something abusive with them, like change the region way too often or something like that. Because the point is, steam charges you according to the region you created your account in. And they cannot prove that you were not in Argentina when you created the account, and they are perfectly good with letting you redeem gift cards in order to purchase games. Moreover, for them, it's a LOT better deal than having their users sticking to piracy than legally buying their games (well, permission to play their games since with DRM, you never legally own the game sigh)
Steam may ban indeed if you do something abusive like gifting your main account the stuff from your argentina account so as to get a good discount. But if you simply stick to that new argentina account/old account with the region swapped, I do not really think that they are going to bother about banning someone and potentially handling enraged customers who have spent thousands on their platform via argentina accounts maybe.

 

[t3chg33k]

No
Why banned , Accounts work in other country , If company wanted they can place IP block restriction
People were using Tidal of Turkey then Argentina etc , their are lots of example

Read on Reddit some time ago that Steam is now forcibly changing the region on some accounts to the one used most often and containing a payment method. I suppose in those cases the region-locked games will stop working even with a VPN.

 

[blitzkrieg96]

An easier method would be to find a reliable csgo or dota 2 skin seller, find a skin thats heavily discounted and then immediately sell it on the steam community market. Be careful of the fee though.