PSA: Region Restrictions: The Meaning of Rest of World (ROW)

I've always wondered why they list a few places and add row, surely they should only need to say row
if it was indeed row, it would be like me saying you can use this tool in Brazil Australia and America....and the whole universe,
i think you are completely right.

this distinction is important and often missed ... I hope others will follow your lead

I get that, but what I don't understand is what we should do with that information? Unless we happen to be given the specific regions where ROW keys cannot be activated (for example, as Indigala does) by the reseller/provider, ROW keys can only be assumed to be WW until proven otherwise.

You are absolutely correct but I had to laugh. You sounded SO CONFIDENT! But then you ended by saying essentially "uh, I hope I'm right -- if not, someone tell me!" :D

From my experience ROW means I can (usually) give to other regions/countries, except those listed explicitly. It also means I always have to pay the maximum (I haven't seen a case where another region had to pay a higher price).

In other words, ROW only means everywhere MOST of the time, but definitely NOT all of the time.

Yup, it's all in the publisher's hands, and even same publisher can use ROW in totally different meaning between each games.
Which kinda makes it useless, doesn't it?

Same problem with various "Europe" locks, which mostly means "European Countries that weren't part of USRR", but other times it's only "European Union" or some combo of those two with "but without Germany, they have their own lock". Or something else entirely...

I just noticed "RoW" today on Steam and I was like... what is that?! Republic of Wakanda? :)) I can't believe it's been a thing for so many years, and that they still haven't made it easier to understand (maybe with a tooltip).