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A Warning


jcris87

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After waiting 2 months for this game to arrive, i finally got to play it. A few days later, my account and system are both banned for allegations of "unauthorized software". Turns out, Cyberconnect2 submitted the ban to Sony, who then enforced it. Playing this game online is what caused them to do that. Apparently, according to them, the only way to play this game on an american system, is to be using pirate software....wrap ur heads around that.

 

**UPDATE** AFTER A YEAR AND CHANGE OF BULLSHIT, CORPORATE STOCK ANSWERS, AND AGGRAVATION, I HAVE SUCCEEDED IN GETTING MY ACCOUNT UNBANNED AND SYSTEM UNBRICKED.

 

I needed to send physical pictures and photocopies of the amazon shipping bill to sony and wait a long time for the reply.

Edited by jcris87
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After waiting 2 months for this game to arrive, i finally got to play it. A few days later, my account and system are both banned for allegations of "unauthorized software". Turns out, Cyberconnect2 submitted the ban to Sony, who then enforced it. Playing this game online is what caused them to do that. Apparently, according to them, the only way to play this game on an american system, is to be using pirate software....wrap ur heads around that.

 

Very nice marketing CyberConnect 2 supporting piracy like that. :rolleyes: Sure it's probably used to restrict people outside of Japan playing it, but even so, it's a double-edged sword either way. The best ways are either to not restrict the game like that, or have it localized so no one has to worry about that and prevents piracy while you're at it.

 

Though I wonder how it would be if you play it on a Japanese PSN account on an American PS3 system.

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If they're that bothered about people outside Japan playing this game then why didn't then region/account lock it? This is one of the dumbest reasons I've heard for someone getting banned from PSN :facepalm:. Haven't these developers ever heard of a little thing called "Region Free"? The PS3 is region free for games (with the exception of one of the Persona games) so why would would they make such a stink about someone legitimately importing a game to play outside of Japan?

Edited by Terminator
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Just out of curiosity, how exactly did you find out it was CC2 that reported your account?

 

And did Sony offer any recourse?

 

And DID you have unauthorized software?

 

I haven't heard of this happening and there are plenty of people with platinum trophies for this game that are outside Japan, so this is all very weird to me.

 

It also seems a little odd that Sony is so quick to do things like confirm Vita as region-free or say that they're aware there's a demand for it on PS4 and still support a ban request from CC2 for playing a game from another region. Something's just not adding up here for me.

 

MERGE: I apologize for the double post, but I thought I'd make sure it showed up as a new post on the off chance that someone actually already saw my last one.

 

I just spent about 10 minutes on the phone with Sony and they assured me that there's no issue with a physical disc copy of a game being played on your system and that it's not bannable. The only issue is if you have a downloaded game off of another region's store, which is bannable due to falsifying account information. They also stated that a physical disc game would not indicate any kind of unauthorized software violation.

 

Do let us know what happens if you get in touch with your boosting partner again.

 

EDIT: For those curious, I have noticed that at least six people have earned the online trophies since our topic creating friend here. One from Japan, two from Hong Kong, one from Russia, one from Germany, and one from Belgium. I can't speak for all of them, of course, but one of the Hong Kongs, the Belgian, and the German were all earning trophies up to yesterday, with two of them still earning today. The other Hong Kong and the Russian were still earning up until the turn of the month. For reference, TC seems to have earned his trophies on 5/14. I'm not sure what his ban date was. This looks, by all accounts, to be an isolated incident.

 

EDIT2: In the interest of accuracy (in other words, making sure those people weren't just playing since the last time they laid down the ban hammer), I checked six accounts that earned these trophies immediately prior to TC. With the exception of one, all had earned trophies within the last three days. Japan x2, US x2, Germany x1. The oddball is an account from Taiwan, who earned their latest trophy on May 27th. Of the two US accounts, one has earned trophies today. Again, I'm not seeing any patterns to banning (or really bans at all that line up with TC's case), so I assume this is an isolated incident.

 

EDIT3: The Taiwan guy synced their trophies and earned some yesterday, which means all of the six accounts that earned the online trophies prior to TC are still earning. I checked a few more and the only one that hasn't earned trophies recently is a guy from Hong Kong who earned their last one on May 25th.

Edited by Daverost
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I apologize for the double post, but I thought I'd make sure it showed up as a new post on the off chance that someone actually already saw my last one.

 

I just spent about 10 minutes on the phone with Sony and they assured me that there's no issue with a physical disc copy of a game being played on your system and that it's not bannable. The only issue is if you have a downloaded game off of another region's store, which is bannable due to falsifying account information. They also stated that a physical disc game would not indicate any kind of unauthorized software violation.

 

Do let us know what happens if you get in touch with your boosting partner again.

 

EDIT: For those curious, I have noticed that at least six people have earned the online trophies since our topic creating friend here. One from Japan, two from Hong Kong, one from Russia, one from Germany, and one from Belgium. I can't speak for all of them, of course, but one of the Hong Kongs, the Belgian, and the German were all earning trophies up to yesterday, with two of them still earning today. The other Hong Kong and the Russian were still earning up until the turn of the month. For reference, TC seems to have earned his trophies on 5/14. I'm not sure what his ban date was. This looks, by all accounts, to be an isolated incident.

 

EDIT2: In the interest of accuracy (in other words, making sure those people weren't just playing since the last time they laid down the ban hammer), I checked six accounts that earned these trophies immediately prior to TC. With the exception of one, all had earned trophies within the last three days. Japan x2, US x2, Germany x1. The oddball is an account from Taiwan, who earned their latest trophy on May 27th. Of the two US accounts, one has earned trophies today. Again, I'm not seeing any patterns to banning (or really bans at all that line up with TC's case), so I assume this is an isolated incident.

 

Well how can Sony tell if a game is downloaded and what isn't? Besides, .hack//Versus only comes in retail as a Hybrid Pack that includes a .hack movie. So there's no PSN Store download for it available.

 

To me it sounds like if you ask 6 different people at Sony, they're going to give you 6 different answers.

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Well how can Sony tell if a game is downloaded and what isn't?

 

I remember hearing they they are actually two different games and that the servers handle them in two different ways. Recently, I've heard that Hitman Absolution's physical version was the only one to receive a patch. You're never prompted for a patch for the digital version because it reads it as a different game and a patch was never submitted for it.

 

I honestly don't think Sony cares as much about you owning digital content from other regions as they say they do, though. It's a very common thing these days, especially with PlayStation Plus, where a lot of people have accounts for NA and EU regions to get the content from both.

 

To me it sounds like if you ask 6 different people at Sony, they're going to give you 6 different answers.

 

Not sure how you reached this conclusion, though. I'm sure if you ask them, you'll get the same answer every time.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

It is actually against Sony TOS to fake account information for accounts from other countries. There's no problem with playing physical games from other regions, though.

 

TC states that their copy was physical, though. (I'm not even sure if this is available on JP PSN because it's a blu-ray disc movie with a game on it.)

 

Also, following up on further potential bans, it looks like almost everyone who has obtained the online trophies since my last post have continued earning trophies within the last month, the vast majority within the last week. There were only two that didn't, and they were both Japanese players, so they wouldn't have gotten a ban for "out of region play". There were plenty of US and Canada accounts in there, too.

 

I still think we're not getting the whole story from TC, if you want my honest opinion.

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  • 3 weeks later...

TanimuraY4, I don't believe .hack//VERSUS has a JP PSN version available. It's only retail. Which I believe there is nothing wrong with playing in a region that isn't Japan; OP's story sounds illogical.

 

If this *is* all true however, does the same go for EU? I just ordered a copy of this game this morning (due to .hack being one of my favourite franchises ever and finally finding this Hybrid pack at a decent price) so obviously I'll want to pursue the (P).

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  • 1 year later...

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