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Buying from Foreign XBOX Store


Dudwood Fudwood
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Hi,

 

I am looking for some definitive advice about buying games from foreign stores. I keep seeing deals relating to games bought from xbox.com in different countries (Hungary etc.). The games always seem to be cheaper than the UK store.

 

So, the deals usually involve changing your region to Hungary, make the purchase and then change region back to the UK store and the game is there to download at a cheaper rate.

 

My question relates to how often this can be changed. I game share with a friend who changed his region to China, downloaded a game and could not change the region for 3 months which rendered some apps useless until he changed back. How often can the region be changed? Is this only available for EU countries? Can anyone advise how legit this is?

 

I am assuming Hungary is OK due to EU trade agreement but do not want to be stuck for 3 months unable to change region again.

 

Thanks in advance.

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You are better off creating another account in the region you want to buy from. I think you can only change your profile region 3 times in a year (from memory). That said you can change your Xbox location (360 and One) as many times as you like, and you can change the locale of the Xbox website too.

 

Purchasing from other regions is complicated by needing a funding source - I have typically purchased currency codes and used those rather than trying to muck around with other options. PayPal may work for you there though.

 

Lastly, you will be able to play the games purchased with your alt account as long as the game is first downloaded on your console. The game gets a license on that console and any profile on it can play from then on.

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Thanks for the replies guys. I seem to have found out the answer after a bit of searching yesterday. So, it seems you have 2 accounts where you can change your region.

First is your console - this can be changed any time and as many times as you like. You can change this on xbox.com by selecting "United Kingdom" in the bottom left. You can then choose whatever country you like, browse their store, download what you like and then change back to UK and keep the item.

Second is your xbox account. This is what can only be changed every 3 months.

 

So to get games cheaper you will need to change the region on xbox.com as described above, download the game of your choice and then change the region back.

 

EU trade rules stop MS from banning your account or purchase. As an example of prices Rare Replay is on the Hungarian store for £13.61 instead of £19.99 on the UK store.

 

:)

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  • 7 months later...

nice. I wasn't interested in low-balling what I pay but did want to download some games from Japan. Same principle? I know China is supposed to be blocked and on 360 was able to download a few games with my credit card but didn't know what changed with X1. I heard one thing and then another and then MS has a change of heart, yadda yadda yadda so it's hard to follow

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