We have received confirmation that region locking has been discreetly brought back into the Xbox One. Console owners in secondary or unsupported regions, in particular, have to be on guard.
The first hints that this has happened came from the official Xbox One forums itself, with several owners belatedly learning digital games and DLC have region locks in place. Of course, people who own Xbox Ones and purchase content for it may not have been aware some of that content was meant for different regions.
When sought out for clarification, Microsoft’s reaction was routine and disappointing:
All Xbox digital content is region specific. Due to many international and cultural laws, not all content is available everywhere.
We shouldn’t have to elaborate on it at all, but of course, Microsoft promised to do away with region locking on Xbox One in the fallout of E3 2013.
So, we were able to verify from a friendly source that Europeans have definitely received a rude awakening about Xbox One’s region locks. Daan Koopman revealed that European Xbox One reps are telling consumers not to use North American settings, but use the € region instead, apparently a placeholder as they cascade Xbox One launches in those countries. Daan further explains that trying to register North American settings could lead to Europeans losing their Gamertag. (Note: screencaptured off the Twitter feed, so please read from bottom going upwards.)
Unfortunately, it would seem that region locking is simply an inescapable reality in the gaming business, as it is for similar entertainment products, like movies and music. We can debate about the merits of region locking, but I would point out that Microsoft should not have made that promise post E3 2013 if they knew they could not keep it.
