21 launch countries listed for Xbox One
Console may not work at all in other regions, including Japan, Poland
Microsoft has revealed the list of 21 countries which will support the Xbox One at launch, intimating that the machine will not function at all in areas which aren't named. There are several notable absences, including Japan and Poland - home to some major developers.
Because of the console needing to 'check in' once every 24 hours to function, customers hoping to import a machine to an unsupported country may well find themselves out of luck. Previously, region-locked software meant that gamers would have to buy the appropriate discs for a machine, but could take that machine anywhere. Now, they'll have to wait until Microsoft decides to add their country to the list.
A list of requirements on the publisher's pre-order information page is somewhat ambiguous in its wording, claiming that users will require "a Microsoft account and an account on Xbox Live in an Xbox One-supported Xbox Live country/region", but requests for clarification to Xbox support staff seem to indicate that if your country isn't on the list, you won't be playing Xbox One.
The following exchange between an inquisitive customer and Microsoft seems to be pretty clear.
A:"Does the Xbox One disclaimer imply you won't be able to authenticate a disc-based game if not in one of the 21 countries?"
"The Xbox One will only be available in the 21 launch countries."
A:"But say someone from Poland, not listed, imports it from the UK. Will they be able to play disc-based games?"
"They would want to wait until the console is available in their region."
In an attempt to bring some clarity to yet another confusing stance on Xbox One, Microsoft has issued a statement.
"At this time, we have announced Xbox One will be available in 21 markets in November this year and additional markets later in 2014. Similar to the movie and music industry, games and other content must meet country-specific regulatory guidelines before they are cleared for sale - which means that games will work in the broad geographic regions for which they have been cleared, much as today with Xbox 360. While the console itself is not geographically restricted, a user's Xbox Live account, content, apps and experiences are all tied to the country of billing and residence."
The list of 21 countries, reproduced in full below, isn't final - Microsoft will continue to add new regions as part of a the Xbox One roll-out. Inquiries with various local Microsoft offices have indicated that missing European countries will start appearing during 2014.
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Canada
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- Italy
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Russia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States
[edit]
I just can't comprehend their strategy here. I mean, I pointed out in two other threads how they are limiting their business. Another thing that occurred to me is that there are many console and game sales from countries that are not supported. For example, here in Malta all games and consoles are sourced from the UK. Yes, Malta by itself isn't a big market but combined with every other country and consumer that has "foreign" consoles... that's going to reduce the numbers of units sold in the countries that are supported at the same time.
I hope they factored this into their equations! Seems like an easy thing to miss out on when you say "UK retained 10 million units but Poland only retained 1 million units... let's not support Poland at launch."
Edited 1 times. Last edit by James Prendergast on 14th June 2013 10:43am
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Greg Wilcox on 14th June 2013 11:39am
But yeah, as I'm sure location will be determined by IP address, then US citizens can freely move thousands of miles between the East Coast and West Coast but move from Belgium to France, surely no-one would ever do that.
Personally I have 2 houses, one in Scotland, one in the Republic of Ireland (but only one bank / billing address). That's not going to work is it!
Leaving the EU out of the equation, and just looking at the physical island of Ireland, and I guess by Ireland above they mean Eire, many Irish have friends & family either side of the border (a political not physical line) so going back to your mams for Xmas, staying with friends etc., if it means crossing the border then leave the Xbone at home, and don't bother logging into your account at the other end.
Even moving home from Dundalk to Newry (a few miles) will make your shiny new Xbone an expensive brick.
Anyway to quote a well know TV show:- 'I'm out!'
/facepalm
I didn't like the 24 hour phone home - sometimes I am on the road without a connection, and a mandatory online patch being pushed over my 3G won't go over well. There's been plenty of times when I've started a game when I happened to be online and I had a patch that I had to wait for before playing. Not that Sony are much better for small patches, but at least by the sounds of it if I don't want multiplayer, then I will have no issues with living offline.
I don't like being told what I can do with the software that I purchase - if I want to give it away to someone, that's my choice.
I don't like region locked software because it makes no sense - if someone wants to give you their money for a product, make it as easy as possible.
And now because I don't currently live in one of the 21 special countries on Microsoft's list I won't be able to activate my console?
Thank you for making my purchasing decisions so much easier.
What exactly makes my German account so special that it may not log in from France and vice versa?
Talk about handing Europe to Sony on a silver platter, this is it.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Paul Jace on 15th June 2013 6:39am
THAT said, yeah, it'll be a super niche console when it finally does land. I'd bet they get a lot of the usual suspects genre-wise, a few popular games (sci-fi stuff, maybe that Halo, and a western RPG or four, perhaps The Witcher 3 once it's done) and probably the big third-party stuff from Konami, Capcom, Square Enix and so forth and so on...
But whaddever. I'm trying to figure out how CD Projekt RED will QA the Witcher 3 for the console if it's not currently set to be released in Poland. I guess it'll be farmed out to a country that can use the system (or am I wrong here as well?)... but doesn't that add more cost to development if this is done? Or is it already done elsewhere?
Is this hardware or software? If it is hardware - wouldn't that make production more expensive? If it is software - why? To what purpose or cause would there be in restricting your customer base from movement? Unless, of course, there is going to be some Windows-based mobile/tablet incorporation involved, ala PS3/Vita?
Funny: the companies that pretty much sold me the PS4 are both Sony and Microsoft. Both at the same degree...
They better drop this nonsense soon. Because that is the only description that fits their choices. Who is making this guys' marketing? Sony?