How to purchase xbox games from different region

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Recently I’ve seen many people trying to buy games from a different region where games are cheaper. For example at this time Witcher 3 game of the year edition is just $12 on Xbox India.

Currently Microsoft allows purchasing from different regions, but i’m not sure whether it will still continue if lot of people started doing this. So may be i’m doing a wrong thing by sharing these steps.

People are having limited success buying the game from India. However, i’m able to and these are the step i followed. These steps are for Xbox India region. For other regions steps are similar but the process can be easier as for those regions it’s easier to use paypal or buy digital gift cards.

I hope this works for you:

  1. Go to https://account.microsoft.com and from the menu go to “Payment & Billing -> Payment Options”.
    Click on “Add apayment Option”. From the drop down select India. You’ll see only one option of credit/debit card after that. Select that and click next.
  2. Enter your Visa/MasterCard details from your country. Make sure it’s enabled for international transactions. Normally credit cards are. In the billing address add an address from India by googling. For example search for address for “marriott hotel new delhi india”.
  3. Click on save. At this moment i’m able to save using my Australian master card. If you’re not then you may need to call your bank and tell them you’re trying to make a purchase online from Microsoft India. Sometimes banks disable them.
  4. You can check whether your card above was accepted by Microsoft by going through your cards transactions. If you see a small nominal transaction from Microsoft or MS.NET for purchase authorisation then all is good. It should look like this “MICROSOFT * BILL.MS.NET PURCHASE AUTHORISATION”. If you see this transaction and still microsoft site says error or not accepted then definitely your bank is blocking it.
  5. Considering your step 4 was success, go to xbox.com and scroll down to the bottom upto the end of the page.
  6. On bottom left, you will see “English (United States)” as site locale, considering you’re in US. Click on it and select India.
  7. Now search for the game from the search, and make sure it says price in INR and not USD. If it’s not INR, check site locale settings again.
  8. Purchase the game. If it fails then either it’s Microsoft that blocked it or your bank is blocking the transaction. Better to give your bank a call.

 

Comment if you are able to purchase following the steps above.