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I'm considering buying boxed CD key for Battlefield 3 Premium, as it has significantly better price than one in Origin Store. Are these keys region restricted in any way?

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  • Where would you be buying it from? As far as I knew the only legitimate retail channel was through Origin.
    – bbodien
    Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 18:09
  • You know that you don't need five tags by question? In fact, we are trying to reduces our tags.
    – Jupotter
    Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 18:10
  • @bbodien you can buy a key-in-a-box in many countries, and as I said in my post, they are usually cheaper. In my case 20% cheaper. I had a quick look, but couldnt seen any cheap, grey-market (typically Russian, in my experience) versions of Premium, but I'm sure they are out there.
    – CJM
    Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 18:54
  • @bbodien: amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B0089L1X08/… for example, although I've found even better options for example in Poland for 136zł (32€) for key-in-box, 119zł (28€) for key only -- on Origin I see it for 50€.
    – vartec
    Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 22:21
  • Ah okay, thanks for the info. I assumed any such codes were created to be used in promotions, and weren't intended for retail as standalone SKUs. My advice would be to buy the Amazon UK one as they have a reliable returns procedure in case you run into problems. Some of those other retailers look suspect.
    – bbodien
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 14:44

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No, it's not region locked

It's been quite a while, and since I've actually purchased an origin CD-key from third party (not Russian though). It has been marked in store officially as multi-language and region-free (aka region: Worldwide).

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I can tell you from personal experience, I bought a Bf3 CD key from one of the bigger cd key websites that was not a Russian key but a normal English key.

It worked for for about two weeks then my Bf3 got its key disabled and I couldn't start it anymore. I got a refund from the key supplier and purchased a copy from amazon and put in the new key. It accepted the key but it wouldn't run either. When I contacted EA, they said the account was disabled.

I had to argue with the online support for a few hours to get my amazon key working. Finally after being persistent I had to create a new origin account and online support generated a new key for that new account.

So I would be really cautions about using a key from one of these sites. If you do I would advise creating a Origin account Just for the game so that if you key/account get disabled it won't affect any other origin games you have.

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  • Are you talking about the base game or the Premium pack? The base game is not normally sold as key-in-a-box. It is usually sold via DVD or via Origin. However, Premium IS routinely sold as key-in-a-box. It sounds like your experience is slightly different - though I completely agree with your conclusion. BTW I found Zavvi to be the cheapest in the UK, but as long as you buy from a known reliable seller, you are unlikely to go wrong.
    – CJM
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 15:34
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I'm not sure about Premium specifically, but I know someone who bought an Russian version of the game; beyond having to download a language pack, they had no problem running it. However some games will check your locality when installing, or may have region-specific keys (as you have considered).

I doubt the key is region specific, but you never know. Plus there is always the possibility that they could retrospectively enforce this later, which would be infuriating.

However, I'd completely recommend you don't buy Premium from Origin. I bought a boxed key version for 20% less (£33 vs £40), which is a decent saving for a 2 day wait.

By all means, buy a grey-market version - there is a decent chance that it will work, However, be prepared to suck up the consequences if it doesn't. To quote Clint:

You've gotta ask yourself a question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?

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  • Since when was guessing an answer?
    – ediblecode
    Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 17:24
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    ...since there was no definitive answer forthcoming ...since my recent experience with a grey-market purchase of the base game may be indicative. Besides, my perfectly sensible suggestion is to opt for a more legitimate discount, rather than a purchase of unknown risk.
    – CJM
    Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 18:22
  • @CJM: I'm not really interested in gray- or black-market, I mean more like legitimate key-in-a-box from legitimate UE retailer. As for experience with the BF3 itself, I did buy BF3LE on Amazon UK, and using it in NL w/o problems. So as far as guessing goes, I'm guessing it should work. But I'd rather be sure.
    – vartec
    Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 22:26
  • @CJM A suggestion is not an answer, it is a suggestion
    – ediblecode
    Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 23:06
  • @vartec There is absolutely no difference between buying software intended for a foreign market (i.e. grey-market) domestically and buying software in a foreign market and bringing it back 'home'. Some software providers takes steps to prevent this (either method) - in my experience, EA do not do this with the base game, and probably won't with Premium. But it's still a gamble...
    – CJM
    Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 23:22

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