Poland and Portugal not supported at Xbox One launch, importing near ruled out

Can't activate games with XBL account registered in unsupported region.

News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor

Updated on June 13, 2013

More good news: Xbox One won't be supported, among other places, in Poland and Portugal when the console launches this November.

Worse, it looks like you won't be able to import an Xbox One if you live there because you won't be able to activate games with an Xbox Live account registered in an unsupported region.

The list of 21 countries Xbox One supports at launch - part of a disclaimer article - prompted concerned Xbox One fans living in the omitted countries to question Xbox Support on Twitter. NeoGAF compiled the reports.

A man called Robert Hallahan asked: "Does the Xbox One disclaimer imply you won't be able to authenticate a disc-based game if not in one of the 21 countries?"

Xbox Support worker Phil replied: "The Xbox One will only be available in the 21 launch countries."

Hallahan responded: "But say someone from Poland, not listed, imports it from the UK. Will they be able to play disc-based games?"

Phil answered: "They would want to wait until the console is available in their region."

The Xbox Support Twitter page is full of similar questions and answers. I'm asking Microsoft PR for further clarification.

This gives rise to a potentially very awkward and frankly ridiculous situation whereby Polish developer CD Projekt Red, which was invited onto Microsoft's E3 stage, could release its Witcher 3 game in autumn 2014 but no fans on home soil would be able to play it on Xbox One.

CD Projekt Red declined to speak out about the situation this afternoon, saying it would prefer to wait for more information. Fortunately The Witcher 3 is also in development for PC and PS4.

It's not just The Witcher 3 being made in Poland for Xbox One that faces this odd predicament - CI Games' Lords of the Fallen RPG is also due out at some point next year.

Eurogamer Poland told me it had been in contact with local Microsoft PR which confirmed an Xbox One launch in the region in 2014, and that was as specific as it got.

Eurogamer Portugal confirmed with Microsoft PR that Xbox One won't be available there this autumn. But Microsoft said it would do all it could to make sure Xbox One was available very soon in 2014.

The only alternative for people residing in Poland or Portugal (or Greece of many of the other countries omitted) would be to create a new Xbox Live account that pretended to be based in a supported region. How hard that is to do, I don't know, but it would mean temporarily - or permanently - shelving your established Gamertag for a new one.

The 21 supported countries are: