Buying games from US Online Xbox One Store from a different region (UK, Europe etc)

[Hoffman]

I've been reading that you can change your Xbox One Region easily in the Settings and then it will allow you to browse and buy content from the US store.

The only catch however, is that your payment option's don't transfer with you (ie if you have PayPal or Credit Card attached to the UK account, you have to re-add when your in the US store as the payment methods are separate). However you can just add new payment options for your US store account including linking it to your PayPal account or just getting a US friend to buy you pre-paid codes.

Then apparently once you got your game you can go back to your original region (say UK) and download and play the game as normal

Has anyone tried this?

I'm really tempted to do this for Titanfall. For some odd reason EA the publisher has decided that worldwide releases are a no go and requires European's to wait an additional 4 days for a game. While this isn't a major deal, it's still rather retarded and waiting longer for a game is really annoying, especially when you play with US friends who will have a four day headstart. (But then again, let's be honest EA are usually quite retarded)

Another benefit is when you use direct currency conversion, buying games from the US Store in dollars with say British Pounds or Euro's actually lets you get the game a lot cheaper.

My concern though is how Microsoft will handle this. They made the console region free, so are they likely to come down hard on people who choose to do this? Last thing I want to do is get my account banned just to get a game four days earlier. But getting the game at a slightly reduced price, digitally and at the same time as my US friends is very appealing.

I've been reading this article from the Microsoft website

If I purchase a game in one country/region, can I play it in another country/region?

Yes. There are no playback restriction on games purchased and downloaded.

For example, if you purchased and downloaded Ryse in France and then move to Germany with your console, you can still play the game that you downloaded. However, you would not be able to re-download the game you purchased, as it would not be available for you to download in the German marketplace.

Can I play a game I purchased in one country/region on a friend’s Xbox One in another country or region?

No. Because the game was purchased in one country or region, it will not be available for you to download from another country or region’s marketplace. The marketplace that your friend’s Xbox One console “points to” will not have access to the content, as that content isn’t available in the “foreign” marketplace.

For example, if you live in France and purchased/downloaded Ryse to your console and then you visit your friend in Germany and sign in to her Xbox One console with your gamertag, you won’t be able to download Ryse to that Xbox console, even though you previously purchased it.

Based on this, I reckon it would be possible to purchase and download Titanfall while my console was set to 'United States'. Then only once it's downloaded switch back to UK to play it. (Reason I'd have to download from the US store, is it wouldn't be available in my region until 4 days later). It's just that will Microsoft care if I purposefully cheat the system using my UK account?


UPDATE:

All the information from this thread has been written up in a handy Step by Step Guide, with all the details you need to buy and manage games and billing accounts on Xbox One from different regions, the implications as well as a FAQ. Check it out:
Step by Step Guide to purchasing content from US Xbox One Store from any region

 

[InsaneNutter]

For example, if you purchased and downloaded Ryse in France and then move to Germany with your console, you can still play the game that you downloaded. However, you would not be able to re-download the game you purchased, as it would not be available for you to download in the German marketplace.

Going from what it says here i imagine like on the Xbox 360 you will need a VPN to download the game. The Xbox 360 had geolocation IP address checks at the start of the download, and at 99% (now in the middle at around 80% too). If you failed the IP geolocation check the download would fail.

If it doesn't work due to IP address checks, find a US based VPN and follow this guide here i did for the 360: Xbox 360 VPN setup for Xbox Live

It would probably be an idea to use a US based profile too, again going from how it is on the Xbox 360 i believe there is a limit on how many times you can change region. (Not sure what it is now, i did think it used to be a one time thing, however not 100%) I would not personally want to mess with my main profile like this, hence why i have UK, US and JPN profiles.

Should easily be double however, especially as the console is region free. At worst you will have to spend a bit of time setting a VPN up and creating a US profile. If you did download the game on your console using a US profile, any one signed in on your console can play the game.

 

[Hoffman]

I've done some more digging and it appears a lot's changed since the 360 day's. The Store and online purchases no longer uses your Xbox Live Region, but instead only uses the Console Locale setting which can be changed. Reading some forum posts, including:

Xbox One digital importing

Digital XBone games at US prices

It seem's to show people are doing it, including Australians and people from unsupported Xbox Regions. It appears providing you can add a billing address and payment method for the relevant region, you can happily use their store.

As a test, I went to Xbox.com and changed my locale to United States and checked my payment methods and their was of course non. I then selected 'Add Paypal' which then asked for a US Address, as I didn't want to provide fake details and get in-trouble I decided to use a good friend's US address (knowing that if Microsoft wanted to confirm it, they could) and then went ahead and added my UK PayPal account. That worked perfectly and I now have my UK PayPal address linked to both the UK Xbox Store and US Xbox Store.

After doing this, I went to commerce.microsoft.com to check my account, and it appear's I now have a UK and US Personal Account (separate) attached to my UK Profile:



Selecting US Personal Account from the drop down, shows I have my US Billing sorted and am good to go and have my PayPal account linked (and my PayPal is a UK account after all):



I then went back to Xbox.com, made sure my Locale was set to United States (bottom left you can change it)



Then went ahead and browsed the store, I then went to go ahead and buy a game, and it works!



Now the only difference is Need for Speed Rival's is also out in the UK Store, so whenever or not they will Geo-IP lock it down the line when I buy a game like Titanfall is a different story. But then if that happens the VPN could easily be an option to get around that.

I should note that this price also will have sales tax added to it, unless you have a US billing address in Oregon for example where there is no Digital Sales tax from Xbox.com. As I was using a real friend's address in a state that has to pay tax, I would have to also pay around $4 tax but that still comes to £38 all together which is cheaper than ALL the retail stores in the UK as well as the online Xbox Store price.

But it is promising, especially when you read this: Microsoft explains how Xbox One importing could work

"You can use one of the 13 digital marketplaces corresponding to our launch markets, assuming you have a valid payment instrument for those countries. Lots of people in Europe specifically travel, move, and visit family," he continued before slyly adding "Now, of course, if you were using Pre-Paid cards..."
Despite all these worldwide benefits, Penello noted that music and videos can be geo-restricted due to licensing issues. "e.g. Netflix works only in supported countries)."

So it seem's you could not only use this method to get games based on US release dates for when the odd backwards publisher comes along like EA that doesn't understand worldwide release dates in the internet enabled world, but that you could take advantage of the currency exchange rates and get games at a good price and digitally. All using you're one PayPal account (or if you didn't want to use PayPal there is enough sites out there which you can buy pre-paid Xbox Live Gift Cards for the US Store etc.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Very nice, ill certainly conciser doing this with future games purchases. The digital download will actually be cheaper than the physical disc like that. (how it should be!)

Might be worth copying your post above in to the guides / tutorials section? I think it deserves to be a Digiex guide!

 

[Hoffman]

I've gone ahead and made a more step by step guide for anyone wishing to try this

Step by Step Guide to purchasing content from US Xbox One Store from any region


Also if anyone is looking for a great place to buy Gift Cards at face value safely, without any risks. Newegg is the best place (Plus you can use Google checkout / PayPal without making an account):

$60 - Should cover any game with no tax:
Newegg.com - Microsoft Xbox Gift Card $60 US (Email Delivery)

$70 - A game with tax (if your US address has tax):
Newegg.com - Microsoft Xbox Gift Card $70 US (Email Delivery)

Other amounts are available, just click one of those links and select the amount on the side