In the last days there were many speculations and questions regarding foreign purchases in the Xbox Store. After Microsoft banned various accounts for 14 days on 2018-09-06 after the so-called "enter method" became known (probably also for self-protection because it could not be ruled out that it was a hacker attack), there was a lot of confusion as to whether games could still be purchased abroad.

In fact, the whole situation is still relatively uncertain, but one thing is certain: the enter method is no longer possible at all. And that's a good thing. Not only for your accounts it could cause problems (bans etc.), but also Microsoft's infrastructure suffers with certainty. Since it seems to be just a glitch anyway, which is fixed in the meantime, you can be happy if at least your pre-orders remain.

There were some cancellations of games, but partly (in the example of Spyro) this was not due to a foreign purchase, but to the game itself. Also affected were players from the U.S. who bought regularly in their home store. However, the reason for this is not known. Probably at the publisher's request.

Even the purchase via VPN does not seem to work anymore. Of course, there can be exceptions. At least in the low-price countries like Argentina or Turkey it is no longer possible. That does not mean of course that a) it will not work again sometime in the future and b) that all countries are affected. If you were successful purchasing a game from a foreign store using VPN, please drop me a message. Recently someone in our Discord Channel speculated that Microsoft might have introduced a so-called BIN check for credit cards. The first six digits of the credit card number are validated, as they refer to the issuing bank and the country of origin of the card. Of course this would be a pity...

Nevertheless, purchases via gift cards are still possible!

At the moment it is difficult to get gift cards for Turkey and almost impossible to get them for Argentina. But never say never! The situation in these countries also changes again and so I can well imagine that in a few weeks/months gift cards will be available again. But if you know any person who lives in such a country, it's always possible to get cards from there. Local businesses sell them, as long as they have stock. But probably there won't be stock for too long anymore. It's also uncertain, if they can re-stock... We will see...

As soon as I get more information, I will inform you!

At this point you have found information about how to shop in other regions in the store. Since the method is similar to a brute force attack, Microsoft found it less good. Yesterday evening they started banning accounts temporarily for 14 days or at least subjecting them to a verification where you first had to reactivate your account yourself by sending an SMS. It could also have been that it was caused by a hack. Who knows how this was expressed internally at Microsoft.

Since I had published this ominous tutorial here, I may even have been the first to be directly affected. I had a permanent account ban last night. However, I was able to discuss the problems with the Enforcement-Team and clarify the issue. We agreed that I'd remove the tutorial here and thus virtually end the indirect DDoS attack (that's how it will have looked at Microsoft). In return the permanent ban was removed again. (If someone from Microsoft or the Enforcement-Team is reading this: Thank you very much! It was no bad intention!)

Therefore I ask you, especially to avoid a temporary or permanent lock, not to use this questionable method any longer to shop in other stores. Just use this page as you did a few days ago to inform you and so on.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading! Next time the Xbox Store has some problems, we'll just ignore them. It will work correctly again sometime. Put the crowbar aside from now on ;)

+++ UPDATE #2 +++

It seems Microsoft has not yet recovered the system completely and you still will get problems when buying games (no matter from which store region). Mercurynews.com said this problems could be caused by shut down servers from the Azure cloud due to overheating?! But that's just a guess. Positive news for us is: This is potentially no try to keep us out trying to buy games from other stores, but instead everyone can get these problems, no matter where you live and which store region you tried. Hopefully very soon everything is back online and working again and all our pre-orders and purchases are successful.

+++ UPDATE +++

It seems that some people were successful in Turkey by just trying again and again if the usual message with "Unable to process payment... " or something like this. Some people needed about 30 tries until the payment was successful. But it seems Argentina is not that easy and won't work this way. But beware: The risk of getting your card blocked this way may be there!

Also some people reported it could be a DDoS against Microsoft, which could cause these problems. Who knows?

Some of you guys may already have noticed problems/trouble when buying games from foreign stores or even from your origin region?! It seems Microsoft has currently some problems performing the payment transactions. Many people reported problems within the last 24 hours. So if you try to buy something, don't give up. But don't try too often. Better keep calm and wait for the next day. Too many tries can result in a temporary blocked credit card. The problems should be sorted out in some hours. I will update this post once I get enough confirmations, everything works fine again.

Until now I has always linked ibVPN here when it comes to a VPN service for buying games in other countries. But I've decided to move on to another service. From now on you will find here especially NordVPN as a recommendation. Why is that so?

Don't get me wrong, ibVPN with its Ultimate offer is not bad and I have ordered many games in several countries with it myself. But the problem, which is now emerging and is getting worse and worse, is that the servers of interest to us, e.g. in Argentina or Turkey, are reaching their load limits. Problematic is exactly the biggest advantage of ibVPN. There is a trial access! This is nice for people who do not want to own a service for a long time or probably only buy a game once via VPN, so they do not want to pay for a VPN service. But I cannot imagine the latter in particular. Who has bought once abroad will do this again and again.

The load of the servers for e.g. Argentina or Turkey is always indicated low with ibVPN. That may be true. Calculated on bandwidth. But with as many connections as with all the Xbox game buyers from all over the world, the servers are becoming more and more unusable. You won't believe how many people register there for a trial account! (I asked)

I would therefore like to recommend NordVPN to you. I recently took a closer look at the service and tried it out myself. A buddy of mine wanted me to buy him about ten mini-games in Argentina. With ibVPN this was a pain, because I was often not connected to the XBL marketplace at all. NordVPN does not win any speed records for these servers either, but in the end they are still significantly faster than with ibVPN. Exception: You use ibVPN when Europe and Asia go to sleep ;) (The Americans are not so interested in buying abroad)

NordVPN has a nice offer: 99 US$ for 3 years VPN (2,75 US$ per month).

(The offer still lasts for 8 days) There is (which is good) also no differentiation of variants, where customers with better variants are preferred etc. Besides, the service is not so overcrowded because it costs something and allows six parallel connections. The offer is therefore perfect for small groups of people who are joining forces. You are welcome to meet us on the Discord Channel and join forces (this has worked well so far).

Since NordVPN offers a 30 day money-back guarantee, you can test it for a few days without any risk and then decide to cancel it ;)

What else can you use a VPN for?

Everyone should think about getting a VPN service, so that your tracks on the Internet are at least not so easy to track. But it can also have completely different, practical reasons. Get e.g. Netflix for 2-3€ in Turkey or watch content limited to regional markets, get Spotify for 2€ from the Phillippines. Maybe even the family package for 5€. There are many possibilities... But first and foremost, the safety aspect should have priority. 

The advantages of NordVPN:

- Access to 4,883 servers worldwide
- No logs
- Unlimited speed
- Connect up to 6 devices simultaneously
- 30 day money back guarantee
- Headquarters in Panama
- Crypto payments possible
- P2P allowed
- many more

Europe gets a Xbox Summer Sale as gamescom promotion - Save up to 60%

On the occasion of the upcoming gamescom 2018 Microsoft starts a Summer Sale in the Xbox Store, which is valid for Europe only. Apparently!? Maybe there'll be something else soon? The Summer Sale is not quite as big as the other sales, but at least more than 120 games made it to the sale! Of course you will find the deals clearly arranged in a list on the left in the menu or also in the normal overview marked as offer!

All sale offers in one list (save up to 60%!)

Microsoft has also added a few new games to the store. These are Sekiro, Division 2 or Soul Calibur 6!

Battlefield 5 Open Beta starts soon!

On September 6th EA will release the Open Beta of Battlefield 5, where you can put the game through its paces. Subscribers of EA Access or people who pre-ordererd the Deluxe Edition may already start on September 4th!

NordVPN also has a good offer :)

If you are generally looking for a good, fast and very secure VPN provider, you should check out NordVPN. There is currently the all-round carefree package for 2.75€ per month. Included are 4843 servers, up to 6 devices at the same time (sharing greetings!) and even 30 days money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. Overall one can say that the offer is similarly extensive, if not even larger than with ibVPN, but the servers with NordVPN are simply much faster!