Want to keep your games collection? Don’t move countries like me

Not many can say this, but I immigrated to Canada and then moved back to England 16 years later, and man, that can cause issues for your games collection. It’s been a nightmare after trading in all of my beloved PS2 games and special edition Mario Game Boy Advance as a kid all that time ago, and now returning to the United Kingdom with my PlayStation Plus selection from Canada.

You can’t change regions for your games collection

Time after time, I come across the same issue. After more than a decade of using the same PlayStation Network account, I can’t change my region from Canada to the United Kingdom. That means, if I make a new account, I’ll lose access to all the PlayStation Plus games and the save data I’ve acquired through all that time. Annoyingly, I can’t use my British debit card on my Canadian account so to keep playing my games: I need to get PSN credit through a website like CDKeys (and then use a VPN to access the credit I need) or ask a friend to get a code for me. Unfortunately, my Nintendo account doesn’t allow me to switch regions either.

Screenshot by Destructoid

Additionally, transferring money from my UK bank to a Canadian account is costly, leading to many annoyances to keep my subscription going in Canada while living in the United Kingdom. It would be far easier to just be able to switch the region rather than going through all this hassle. After many years of purchasing games through PlayStation and Nintendo’s services, these companies should return the favour.

The accounts are not the only issue when you switch countries. Many systems used to be region-locked, so all of your retro games will likely not work overseas unless they get modded. Thankfully, that’s not the case anymore with the big three systems and PC.

Image via Square Enix and Disney

I had to buy Kingdom Hearts HD ReMIX three times before my saves worked again

One annoying issue I found in my gaming journey after moving to the United Kingdom is some of my game saves. No matter how many times I reinstalled Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX on my PS5 with a UK disc, I couldn’t get my saves to work. After the collection was removed from PlayStation Plus, it was a big hassle.

I decided after the physical version didn’t work, I’d get a digital copy from the UK PlayStation Store. Unfortunately, that didn’t work either. To get my saves to finally work, I had to buy a Canadian version of the game digitally, and even then, it was a struggle for the PS5 to recognize I wanted the North American copy to boot up. I thought I lost hundreds of hours of save data but I finally prevailed after many attempts.

Overall, it should be easier for customers to keep their content, no matter where they live. That’s one of the dangers of keeping your library digital because you never know if you’re going to lose your games.

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