Setting Gamertag to a different Country/Region

Thank you for your reply.

About KB961144:

This problem may occur because the Gamertag change is not applied correctly to your Xbox LIVE Account.

I don't think that's about the same subject, since it's about errors/technical problems while this topic is about an inconvenient setup and/or restriction.

Once at home, I will try calling Xbox support once more.

totally confused as to why no one at the help center can give a reason as to why location cant be changed.
"The best thing you can do is create a new gamertag(and lose 9 months gold membership and 2150 points) or not play any new maps for the games you have" was the lovely comment i had from help desk.
I say its NOT good enough, and ask WHY cant the location from our gamertags be changed?
Thinking now i wish i had stuck with PC gameing, at least there are no restrictions to where you live for any updates, you dont have to pay to play most games.
Ah well will probably get yet another RROD now just to rub salt in the wound.

This is exactly the problem I have mate and I encountered the same bs response.

However, there is a partial fix:

Buy US gamerpoints sold on Ebay in the states. They email you the codes for the points.

The trouble then is the points/downloads (for maps etc) don't work on all games :( Because your xbox is located in another country and not where the hosting servers with the maps are).

Fallout 3 downloads are no problem using this method. :)

Unfortunately COD WOW and Gears 2 are :(

I'm still fustrated. Why design a world-class gaming system with no capability to change locations!!! :(

Hey Rick, yes I have already bought US points from eBay twice, but I rather just buy them at the local store.
What still sucks is that all news items/downloads etc are all from US.
Like, I get ads for Netflix while we can't even have Netflix here.
Another annoyance is that people see a US flag near my name on some games.

I am having this problem right now, and have been back and forth with Microsoft online support for XBOX using emails for several days now. Is there any solution to this obvious problem from Microsoft Xbox live at all?

I just purchased 2 x4000 cards and when trying to redeem code the message is Please enter a valid code.

What should I do? I tried calling the xbox center but it is closed I will try again tomorrow.

Aaaah and I was looking forward to the CoC WaW maps.

Come ON.

Am in Saudi Arabia by the way and Xbox still did not include us as a country so I had to place my local in UK. That's why I love Sony. God bliss you Sony. you were always good to us.

Unfortunately I too have the same problem because I changed the nation, and for that check the IP address of your nationality in addition to the Xbox Live ID account, you block some content in the marketplace (and tell you: not available from your location .... Why not???? LHO buy here!)
I now live in Switzerland (10km from the Italian border), and all products XBOX (games, microsoft points, etc. ... etc. ..) sold here are from Italy, but since Microsoft could not know that in Switzerland the 3 national languages (actually 4 !!!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland
(German and French Italian, not African or Hindu !!!), to have the dashboard in Italian, even those who have always lived in Switzerland and speaks Italian for not having the dashboards in French or German has to put Italy in her live id , then after having problems ....

7 times I called customer support ....
want to know the different entertaining answers?
1. Italy leads the Xbox ....
2. created a new account (losing 2500 Microsoft Points, and 11mesi to live?? as hi asked to transfer the points and live on another account, but a "supervisor" told me that you can not ....)

I do not know, it would seem that if those of Microsoft have not provided the problem before, there is no way to reason with customer support, or to find appropriate solutions, and it would seem that the problem will be resolved only if another 200,000 thousand users have the same problem ....

I was very disappointed ... not just for this incident but for many other oversights, which made it almost impossible for us players .... making life really difficult to use Microsoft products for people like me who loves them ....

thanks to this problem i dont play xbox360 no more( 1.5 years now:D) since i only used it for arcade and now i cant buy the MS points...and also i am not going to buy them at the retail store where the price higher

When I phoned Xbox support in the Netherlands, the representative mentioned they get calls about this issue 2 times a day, and looking online I see a lot of people have the same issue as well. Despite that, there is no solution. :(

I understand you could associate your Gamertag with a different Live ID, but once your Gamertag reads the region from the first Live ID, it's set in stone no matter what you do with it, so that's useless.

There are two workarounds, but since the first is moving (back) to the country your Gamertag is set to, there is really only one. That is creating a new Gamertag and corresponding Live ID with your (currently) correct region. Forget about your old name/identity, save games, leftover MS Points, and any content (DLC, Arcade games, etc.) you already bought.

Alternatively you can keep using the old account to play the stuff you bought already, but for online games that means you'd need to buy Gold for both accounts, and there is no guarantee everything will work since your Xbox isn't in the right (actually: wrong) region like the Gamertag wants.

They won't (claim it's technically impossible) change the region associated with your Gamertag because of potential abuse. For example you could set your account to USA, buy MS Points for relatively cheap dollars, then switch back to Dutch. The Xbox Live EULA mentions the region for Gamertags can't be changed, and you are supposed to check your Live ID beforehand.

I think you can re-use your old Gamertag name if you're willing to pay. For 800 MS Points rename your old Gamertag to something else, and immediately register a new Gamertag using your old name. Be really quick just in case somebody else wants to snatch up your old name in the meantime. I haven't tried this yet, but I think it should work.

800 Points will cost you $12,50, since you'll actually need to buy 1000 Points and waste 200. You'll either need to get your hands on a USA MS Points card (or at least code) somehow, or use your credit card.

I don't think a Gamertag/Nickname is available immediately when you rename it to something else.
A proper registering system ought to set this Nick as unavailable for at least a couple of months.

Of course, getting another Gamertag is not a solution.

My solution, for a couple of months now, is buying USA MS points from eBay.
Find someone that sells MS points and looks like someone you can thrust. Do check the feedback on someone and see if there's any feedback from people who previously bought MS points from that seller.

I think I've done this 3 times now, they'll usually send you the (working) code through Email within an hour or so.

Like I said, I haven't actually tried it, won't vouch for it, but the article I linked before suggests the name is freed up immediately. Specifically it mentions you can't change capitalization in your Gamertag, since GAMERtag and gamerTAG are considered to be identical. As a workaround it mentions you could first change it to something completely different, and then change it back, but with the capitalization you want (for 1600 MS Points total). It warns you to be quick about it, leading me to my earlier conclusion.

I agree, this isn't a solution by a long shot, but I thought the idea was worth mentioning anyway, in case someone wants to be able to at least use their old name. I just hope it actually works.

Your suggestion I thought of myself, and it's definitely worth mentioning, but it isn't really a solution either. For instance Gears of Wars 2 includes a code that lets you download some extra maps for free, and that code only works in the region you bought the game in. The same thing goes for codes included with some special edition games. You'd have to buy USA versions of those special editions to be able to use those features. Of course if you already spent money on that account this may still be preferable to starting anew.

Well, I since tried it, and the old name is freed up in a matter of seconds, so I would advice to be quick if anyone wants to follow the same route. :)

My advice: On a PC log in your new Windows Live ID (the one with the proper region) using account.live.com. Once logged in, visit Xbox.com and you should get a page allowing you to register your new Gamertag for this Live ID, Fill in the details, but don't try to submit the form yet. On your Xbox 360 rename your old Gamertag. Back on your PC, check if the Gamertag is available yet using the button, and once it is, register.

One additional problem I ran into was buying the USA MS Points for the renaming. I couldn't add a credit card as a payment method since even on that page MS insists on using the incorrect region. :( I had to get my hands on a USA Points card instead. (Twice as money Points as needed on the smallest card, but oh well.)

Same problem here, only now I finally know why MS automatically fills in "United States" when I try to pay with my credit card. I was actually close to buying 8400 EU points, but thankfully I found this article first, since my account is registered as being a US account (despite me living in NL). How silly that something I filled in 10 years ago to get access to premium hotmail would backlash like this -_-

Hey everyone,

Same problem here, moved from UK to Canada well over a year ago now. I tried to change gamertag region as soon as I moved, but MS wouldn't let me. I was hoping that there would have been enough complaints by now for MS to respond. I appreciate the security/abuse concerns, but surely they have to realise that it is common for people to legitimately move countries. Also, surely you could send them proof of your current address i.e. a utility bill or something?

I never know whether I am having problems on XBL because of normal reasons- server over capacity etc, or if it is because I am in the 'wrong' region.

It is a ridiculous limitation- especially for a multinational organization...

Hope that this is resolved in the near future!