Like the title says, I was assured by the merchant that I could use the download code when I am using my Japanese Switch and have a North American account. Sadly, this is not the case and I have a useless code that I can't redeem because opening up an EU account exposes me to risk of being flagged according to NoA customer support as it violates the end user agreement.
The merchant is telling me I can redeem it by opening an EU account, and that I should have known. Unfortunately, for other EU games like South Park in their store, they have stickers on them seeing "you must have a European E-Shop Account to get the DLC". This did not have it.
I now have a useless download code for the EU version and should have just waited until they stocked the US edition or until I went home to the US to buy this.
I would love to have traded it to you or bartered for something, but I just got word from someone at the store who said that he would take it off of me if I returned so he could have it and I just traded it for another game. The store normally doesn't take returns for DLC issues, but someone wanted it and they told me to come back immediately if I want to return the game and sell it to him and for me to exchange the credit for a new one.
So in the past half hour since posting this, someone was willing to get a like-new version because he had an EU account.
In an ideal version, someone here would have traded their US code for my EU code, but hey, this worked.
What am i missing? Whats the advatage of buying hardware for one region, having an online account for another region, and buying games from yet another region?
I am an American living in Southeast Asia. The edition I bought was supposedly a US Switch model, but it's actually the Japanese model. The box is in English because it's for the Middle East and Southeast Asia region and looks like the US box.
As an American, I have a US online account because my credit card billing address is in that country.
Buying games from other regions are because until last night, I was under the impression that the region-free nature of the Switch meant I didn't have to worry about download codes. I didn't have a hard time with my software updates or DLC for European version of Zelda or Super Mario Odyssey, and I bought the European versions because the local stores had run out of US editions and there were no problems there.
It is the download codes that are the problem, not the DLC. I could STILL buy the Travis Strikes Again DLC from the E-shop, but then what's the point of buying the physical if my DLC code was useless to me?
EDIT: I also am surprised it didn't work for Travis Strikes Again because I bought the EU physical edition of Banner Saga Trilogy last year and the download code worked just fine to get the third game.
What the NoA agent told me was whatever region you register your account with is the region you stick with--for example, even if I have a Japanese Switch and my E-Shop is North America, then NA is the region I stick with, meaning don't open additional European or Mexican E-Shop accounts to get discounts on games like Gris.
People on Destructoid were boasting about paying less for Gris by opening a Mexican E-Shop account instead of paying the European or American E-Shop prices.
@Severian Gotcha.
I've never changed regions or created other accounts (other than creating a Japanese My Nintendo to order some Xenoblade stuff before I discovered they only ship domesticall), but I've seen even staff here on NL say they have made Japanese accounts to buy stuff.
Granted what you're talking about is different. IIRC they shut down a South American or African e-shop because people were doing the same thing.
Sakurai: Which is why I think we should forget about console wars and focus on what’s really important: enjoying the games themselves.
"If we did this (mobile games), Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo." - Iwata
@Severian I'm British but like you live in South East Asia and also have a Japanese Switch. I have multiple different region accounts. My main one is UK which I changed to South Africa to purchase Switch Online but I also have seperate US / Japanese / Russian / South African and Norwegian accounts. I've purchased from them all except for Japan without any problems. If it was not allowed to change regions Nintendo wouldn't have made it so simple to do. You could have played Travis NMH on a separate account and it would have only required an extra button press to select region when starring the game. Although you wouldn't have had access to cloud saves as your membership is tied to another account.
This is what puzzles me because I know others with multiple accounts who have not had issues, and yet the NoA agent on the phone told me this is specifically forbidden.
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Topic: I stupidly bought the physical Travis Strikes Again EU version when I'm using NA
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