Region issues with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Let me start by saying that I'm no stranger to region issues. I'm an American living in Japan with an American Xbox account on a Japanese Xbox 360 and a Japanese Xbox One. I know I'm going to have region issues from time to time. I pretty much accept that
as a fact of my situation. That said, the inconsistency is killing me this week.

I was excited to see both Force Unleashed games go on sale this week, and even more so when backwards compatibility for both was announced. I've tried to buy the first game, both on my 360 and on xbox.com, with no success. Every time I get the "Sorry, your
purchase can't be completed at this time" message or an 80150017 error code. I'm trying to purchase the game with a debit card that draws on my American bank account. (I know it works for Xbox Marketplace purchases, as I had no trouble buying the Sunset Overdrive
season pass this week.)

Just to see what would happen, I tried to purchase The Force Unleashed II on my 360 just now. It worked! This is great, and I'm happy for it, but I really want both games. There's actually a lot of stuff on the sale this week that I want to buy, but region
restrictions are locking me out of those purchases.

I know I could change my region to Japan, to keep thing consistent with my console and my location, but that locks me out of using my American debit card. It also forces all my Games with Gold games to be the Japanese versions. (Japan's GwG has fewer titles
and they're mostly all forced to the Japanese language.) Keeping my account as an American one will sometimes keep me from getting GwG titles, and I can live with that if it keeps me getting all my free games in English. I can't even by SW:TFU digitally in
Japan, as it was never released on the Marketplace here. The disc version has no region restrictions on it, so why does the Games on Demand version?

Is there any solution to this situation? I really want to spend money this week!

:)

 

Can't receive xbox360 games from "games with gold"

I bought 2 weeks xbox live gold membership redeem code from cdkeys.com for "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" game.

I received xbox one games as "games with gold",

but I cannot receieve xbox360 game.... ("Star Wars: The Force Unleashed")

I searched internet, and this could be region problem...

then, If I buy another xbox live gold membership redeem code (from amazon),

Can I get "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" game as "games with gold"?

Current my gold membership period is until at the beginning of March.

If my new redeem code activated after end of current membership period....

I'm worry about I cannot receive "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" game.

Is there any solution?

 

we need star game

Star Wars the Force Unleashed I and II were excellent. There is also a Star Wars Kinect game and the Lego Star Wars games.

 

Easy you must match your account region to your actual region

And yes this applies to xbox 360 games but not one games

The publisher decides where and what content is region locked

Being region free has no bearing on region locks or international laws

 

As long as you have a mismatched region you will continue to have issues

 

There is no troubleshooting that is allowed other then match your account region to your actual region

Anything else related to region and bypassing the locks us a violation of the terms of use

 

Not to mention violating the laws and bans of certain games is anot a good idea

International laws are there for a reason not something you can ignore because you are visiting you are a guest in the country

 

Region locks are legally binding hence why you can't bypass them

 

"Being region free has no bearing on region locks"

Can you elaborate on this point? I would think that being region free means content isn't locked to a specific region. Thus the term "region free." I also don't understand why a game that is region free on disc would be region locked as a downloadable title.

I wasn't asking how to bypass region locks. I was trying to find out some details about the status of SW:TFU, especially since SW:TFU II doesn't have this same issue.

 

Sorry to hear you're having issues. As you can see by the link below SW: TFU is not available for digital purchase in Japan.

marketplace.xbox.com/.../66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8024c4107d2

This is more than likely the reason you are having issues purchasing the game. Also, because of this, even if you were able to purchase the game using a US based account you could experience issues downloading it as some games cannot be downloaded to regions
that they were not originally intended for.

 

Region locks mean if you buy a game from.the us but you don't physically live there you cannot.download it

It's not rocket science

Region free only affects physical disk and are still ruled by import laws

 

Onyx62is,

Thanks for the well thought-out and detailed answer. The link was helpful as well. I knew I could get the demo here, which added to my confusion. The first game in the series wasn't even released here for the 360 at all (disc or digital) - coming out on
only the PS2, Wii, and DS. So while the full game not being on the store makes sense, why have the demo up at all if the game isn't available for the system locally?

Even though SW:TFU II wasn't released in Japan for any system, I could purchase it with no issues at all. I could do this easily, never mind the link:

marketplace.xbox.com/.../66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8024c4107f2

showing it as unavailable. The Marketplace menu item within the game works fine, and gets me access to all the additional content as well. Perhaps TFU II just slipped through the cracks somehow? I've got it in my library, and it runs as it should, so I'm
thankful for that.

Again, thanks for your courteous answer. I'll consider the matter closed at this point.

Cheers,

CW

 

If it was released locally you would only have access to the Japanese copy only

That's how region locks work and what is stated in the terms of use

Not the us copy

 

Demos.never have region locks the publishers or governments don't care about a demo

It's the full game

As mentioned before it is up to the publishers and government to decide what is region locked not ms

If the publisher feels tfu is to be region locked that is their legal right

If they feel tfu 2 doesn't need it it's their choice as long as the government allows it

 

well, i used to have this game for my xbox 360, but i no longer have it, and i can't buy it, it's the same problem, but since i had it, is there a way i could download it for my xbox one?