How do Publishers/Developers deal with this?

JordanN

I never realized something like this before.
You know when games come out and there are always region differences? Like using a real example, I saw a game where one set of DLC costumes was only available in one country but not the rest. And the reasons being possibly intentional (i.e avoiding controversy because of culture differences at play).

While on home consoles these types of policies can't be challenged because of the fixed hardware, what about when PC gamers circumvent the region blocks by modding in foreign content?

Is this type of loophole just written off/ignored by studios, or is it considered underhanded (or possibly stealing?) to see modders take content that was only intended for one region and have it work elsewhere?

Personal disclaimer: I'm not advocating any type of theft whatsoever.  I'm just curious what kind of legal precedent exists if a studio were to release a bunch of texture packs in one country but all the other game copies around the world don't (until someone makes a PC mod about it). 

throttlekitty

IANAL, but I'd reason that in a legal situation like this would go something like this. The company would need to prove that it made an adequate attempt to prevent a third party from easily using region-blocked content, or circumventing it.

So having something like a simple ini value that a player could easily change, like "Region" probably wouldn't hold up as well as a region-specific executable or similar. Then in the ToS you have the player agreeing that they can't modify the binary data as well as redistribute the game content. but ToS contracts aren't so enforceable, especially in the global scene. But at least the studio at least has a clear ruling of their intent to stay within the law and shows the effort to prevent from people doing so.

Of course rules and locks won't prevent someone determined from doing so, but that's out of anyones control.

ZacD

Distributing content from a game is very clearly illegal.

If the content was already included in the game, and you are just modifying the game files to unlock it, that's usually within the players legal rights. But the developer does have the right to ban the player for it in their ToS, but they probably wouldn't win a court case suing the player over it. 

Aydhe

As far as im concerned it is agaisnt ToS to modify or misuse game's content in any way. Which is why you can't make your Overwatch figures and start selling them or ebay, or why you can get banned for modding your games.

Of course, this isn't always case and there are companies like bethesda who base survival of their games on modding (they do, let's face it)

But simultaneously, it may lead to things such as Hot Coffee mode in GTA San Andreas, which is why it's illegal.

Marshkin

Companies are aware and they do a risk evaluation on it.

For example, it is pretty common for M-rated games that ship to Japan to cover up female nipples, where as the EU and NA counterparts show them.
If people take a mod that frees the nipples for people playing on the Japanese version of the game on PC, the team will likely not do anything. Or if they use software to allow them to play other versions of the game in their country - The company won't do anything about it. 

But they do monitor it. Most of it is harmless, but sometimes they need to step in if it will cause a problem. (Modding granting people paid for dlc without paying for - as an example. The Sims team has had to combat that a lot over their long reign).

Now if this is an online game and there are region specific exclusives, or there's any monetary exchange involved, the company is far more likely to step in (be it the publisher or the developer).