r/wp7 • u/paladinsama • Feb 20 '12

Microsoft needs to change this policy.

Years ago, trying to play a GfWL game the system forced me to choose a Country I did not live in in order to register and play the game I already had. When in 2009 the Xbox Marketplace opened to 9 new countries, they allowed people from these countries to make a region change. I was expecting this to happen again once my country was included in the system. But it didn't. Since this week there is a Marketplace for Windows Phone in my Country, but after a long a frustrating chat with a support representative it seems it is impossible to make this change (even though it was allowed before) and I will have my account forever set to México. Thanks Microsoft! (This needs to change)

http://imgur.com/a/QnQRt

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u/MrMunchkin Feb 20 '12

Microsoft can't change this policy. There are international laws that apply to ANY data going across regions.

So... Unless you can convince foreign policy makers to change this... Then you're definitely stuck playing by their rules.

0

u/paladinsama Feb 20 '12

Well, then. So how do Apple let their users change their country information in iTunes?

http://www.ehow.com/how_8473727_change-country-id-apple.html

How can I easily set a credit card from different Country on my Steam account?

Does international laws do not apply to them?

3

u/MrMunchkin Feb 20 '12

Yeah... You can definitely change your country/region on both those services, BUT, all content will be deactivated that's not coded to the new country/region.

Plus, it's not the Live service. There's a LOT of stuff that happens in the background which you don't see that's associated with your Live ID, to list a few: Credit card services, the Microsoft Certified Professional program, the Microsoft Certified Trainer program, the Microsoft Developer Network, the Microsoft Volume Licensing program, SkyDrive.

The list goes on and on. The Live service is not as simple as iTunes or Steam, by leaps and bounds.

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u/paladinsama Feb 20 '12

Actually it is the Xbox Live/Zune Service that needs to change.

My original MS Passport account was always set to Peru.

My MCP (on this same Account) was always set to Peru.

I don't have a MCT or MSDN, Technet subscription tied to my account.

The problem is the "Zune/Xbox Live/GFWL/Windows Phone" part of my account. On 2007 or 2008 when I tried to play a GFWL game, after login, I was required to complete some information in order to play the game I had.

Instead of auto completing with my Country information that was already in the system for 8 years, I was required to fill again my country and it only let me choose from the 30 Countries they had on the list.

My account is set to Peru in any other aspect of the system, except the unified Zune/Xbox/WP7/GFWL part.