;Buying FM12 forsomeone abroad (Steam related)

Basically my brother in law is in China and can't purchase the game there and Steam, unsurprisingly, don't accept his Chinese bank card!

I had the idea of buying a copy of the game for him here and installing it onto his steam account for him.

Would he then be able to fully access the game?

Would I then be able to delete steam from the computer I installed it on without affecting his access to it?

The simple solution would be for him to buy the game over steam with a credit card but he doesn't have one. I've never used steam euntil this release.

I have never used it, but Steam offers a 'Purchase as a Gift' option which should allow you to buy on his behalf and allocate it to him.

You can find this option by adding the game to your cart, at which point at the checkout you will be offered the choice between 'Purchase for myself' and 'Purchase as a gift'

Once you have steam bought and paid for on the account its there forever. You can delete your steam, uninstall the game and itll be fine.

I think what he is asking is if he buys the game over here and chooses to buy it as a gift on steam, can he send it to his brother-in-law in China. If he can send it to him will his brother-in-law still be able to download & play the game.

Yeah that works too. Unless the game is banned in China.

I think it might be wise to check on Steam rather than here to make certain.

Thanks guys.

I have to choices, either to install here on his account for him and then uninstall steam afterwards (as I dont want steam on that computer), OR

Purchase is as a gift for him via steam - I'm just a little worried about getting validation mixed up though, as I already own a registered copy though my personal steam account.

you can buy it and gift it too him...

then on his steam he can download and play wherever he is...

and he can completely activate etc himself?

Your Steam account can be disabled for account sharing (yes, with all the games in it). You are better off buying it as a gift.

I would check with the SI/Steam support guys that you can do a Steam gift purchase, due to legal restrictions in China I wouldn't be surprised if there blocks in place to prevent this.

Can your brother actually access Steam from a Chinese ISP?

Yeah that works too. Unless the game is banned in China.

The game is banned in China due to the fact that SI have independent nations in the game that China does not recognise.

and he can completely activate etc himself?

yep.. when you gift it .. its just like it sounds.. a window pops up saying youve got a gift... click it.. and asks if you wanna install.. its all his then , with a new key and new everything ...

but yeah.. check with steam/si whether chinese isp's block steam or the game

It should be ok. I used to live in China, for almost two years, and had access to Steam, so no worries there.

lots of things are banned in China ... so ... yea.

I live in Taiwan currently and that is a whole list of seperate issues.

I think you should be applauded for going through the trouble to actually pay for the game, especially as in China it's very easy to pirate anything. It's too bad that it has to be so hard for you and other would be paying customers in lots of different regions around the world.

You didn't hear this from me, but the simplest way is for you to log in to your brother's account and purchase the game with your cc info. He can log in wherever he is and install it on his computer, after you've done the deed and logged out. Everyone gets paid, everyone has the game, everyone is happy.

You're overcomplicating things. I live in China.

Buy the game. Email (phone / text / pigeon post) him with the activation code. He can then 'activate a product on Steam'. This is how I did it.

Steam isn't banned in China, and be accessed perfectly normally. You just can't buy the game on Steam from China.

You can log out of your own Steam account and log onto his (provided you know the details) and buy the game for him. Then log out and back onto yours. You can't install a game onto a Steam account - the game has to be installed to a computer - so he'd have to actually install it.

I would check with the SI/Steam support guys that you can do a Steam gift purchase, due to legal restrictions in China I wouldn't be surprised if there blocks in place to prevent this.

Can your brother actually access Steam from a Chinese ISP?

The game is banned in China due to the fact that SI have independent nations in the game that China does not recognise.

It's going to irritate me unless i point out this is nonsense, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong etc, have separate federations within FIFA, in much the same way that England, Scotland, Wales etc do. I'm not saying the situations are identical, but it's broadly similar, and it's a FIFA thing, not Sports Interactive. I think China plays these teams, only not often because they're rubbish.

Just because something isn't in China doesn't mean it's banned.

Again, let me stress. Your relative should get the activation code from you. Open (or install Steam) and activate the product. The game will then download on his computer in exactly the same way as it would in the UK or any other country if you purchased the game through Steam.

Steam isn't banned. This forum isn't banned (though it might be if this turned into a political discussion; so obviously - please don't). The game isn't banned any more than the games that Chinese kids play are banned in the UK.

Unfortunately Youtube and twitter are banned, but frankly the only reason i find that annoying is because I can't get the Steam achievements.

If you can't find what you want in a supermarket do you rush around complaining, 'Why have you banned this product?' When cinemas in China stop showing western movies after several months the western media come up with stories about how it's been banned. I think at the moment the Chinese national team's games aren't shown on TV. Is that because the government have banned their own team. Actually it's because nobody watches the games. If the national team played this week and i asked 100 random people what the result was, you'd be lucky if even one person knew, though a few of them would know the latest Man Utd result. China isn't a football loving nation, and Mandari isn't a playable language in the game. Why would shops in China want to sell it, or SEGA lay out the money to get a license for the game here?

It's going to irritate me unless i point out this is nonsense, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong etc, have separate federations within FIFA, in much the same way that England, Scotland, Wales etc do. I'm not saying the situations are identical, but it's broadly similar, and it's a FIFA thing, not Sports Interactive. I think China plays these teams, only not often because they're rubbish.

Just because something isn't in China doesn't mean it's banned.

Again, let me stress. Your relative should get the activation code from you. Open (or install Steam) and activate the product. The game will then download on his computer in exactly the same way as it would in the UK or any other country if you purchased the game through Steam.

Steam isn't banned. This forum isn't banned (though it might be if this turned into a political discussion; so obviously - please don't). The game isn't banned any more than the games that Chinese kids play are banned in the UK.

Unfortunately Youtube and twitter are banned, but frankly the only reason i find that annoying is because I can't get the Steam achievements.

If you can't find what you want in a supermarket do you rush around complaining, 'Why have you banned this product?' When cinemas in China stop showing western movies after several months the western media come up with stories about how it's been banned. I think at the moment the Chinese national team's games aren't shown on TV. Is that because the government have banned their own team. Actually it's because nobody watches the games. If the national team played this week and i asked 100 random people what the result was, you'd be lucky if even one person knew, though a few of them would know the latest Man Utd result. China isn't a football loving nation, and Mandari isn't a playable language in the game. Why would shops in China want to sell it, or SEGA lay out the money to get a license for the game here?

Calm down a bit mate..

Chinese people don't watch Chinese football, there are better alternatives. I would love to see the Chinese care about football more, but unless there's the boom like basketball when first Wang Zhi Zhi, then Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian were on NBA teams, it'll be hard for the people to watch the games. There needs to be a Chinese superstar. The Chinese loved basketball over time, why not football?

Now, there's a lot of things about the CSL that are questionable (for a lack of a better word, to avoid political discussion, because as part of the Chinese diaspora I understand most of the issues there - football related or not) and the reasons why Wuhan left the CSL. You don't see the Chinese clubs doing well in the AFC Champions League, and only recently has a team (Guangzhou Hengda) have tried to lure top talent like signing Dario Conca.

I don't ever see the CSL and Jia League getting a license since you can't even buy the game there, unless this changes because they can't reach the market.