I'm a German who's been living abroad for the past couple of years, and I plan to move back to Germany in about two years. With the recent announcement that HoI4 will have region-locked versions of the game, I'm a bit worried about potential issues that could come up if I buy the international version now and then return to Germany in a few years. I'm hoping that either @Had a dad or @BjornB, who I've seen commenting on posts regarding the region-locked German version, will be able to answer my questions here or add them to the FAQ posted by Had a dad. Since these questions might be relevant to other people, I decided to make a post about it rather than messaging them personally.
1. Steam has multiple options for region-locking a game, two of them being PurchaseRestrictedCountries and ProhibitRunInCountries. The first one defines from which countries a game cannot be purchased, and the second one prohibits running a game in specific countries. As an example, Wolfenstein: The New Order uses both of these options, so that both buying as well as playing the international version of the game is impossible while being on a German IP address. As far as I can see on SteamDB, Hoi4 only uses PurchaseRestrictedCountries, so that I should still be able to play the international version after returning to Germany. However, I would like to have a confirmation that HoI4 isn't using ProhibitRunInCountries (and won't implement it in the future), since I wouldn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on the base game and expansions, only for them to be locked after returning to Germany in two years.
2. If I return to Germany with the international version in my Steam account, and then buy additional DLC for the game while being in Germany, will there be any compatibility issues between the international version of the base game and (potentially region-locked) DLC?
Also, please refrain from discussing anything related to censorship or the German laws, as I don't want this thread to be closed. I'm just looking for answers specific to my situation. Thank you.
1. Steam has multiple options for region-locking a game, two of them being PurchaseRestrictedCountries and ProhibitRunInCountries. The first one defines from which countries a game cannot be purchased, and the second one prohibits running a game in specific countries. As an example, Wolfenstein: The New Order uses both of these options, so that both buying as well as playing the international version of the game is impossible while being on a German IP address. As far as I can see on SteamDB, Hoi4 only uses PurchaseRestrictedCountries, so that I should still be able to play the international version after returning to Germany. However, I would like to have a confirmation that HoI4 isn't using ProhibitRunInCountries (and won't implement it in the future), since I wouldn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on the base game and expansions, only for them to be locked after returning to Germany in two years.
2. If I return to Germany with the international version in my Steam account, and then buy additional DLC for the game while being in Germany, will there be any compatibility issues between the international version of the base game and (potentially region-locked) DLC?
Also, please refrain from discussing anything related to censorship or the German laws, as I don't want this thread to be closed. I'm just looking for answers specific to my situation. Thank you.
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