Games for Windows Online Activations & Region Locking

It has come to my attention that Games for Windows has online activations & region locking applied to their games. 2K Games Community Manager Elizabeth confirmed the online activations on the 2K Games forums due to the Bioshock 2 DRM changes as quoted here:

There will be no SecuROM install limits for either the retail or digital editions of BioShock 2, and SecuROM will be used only to verify the game’s executable and check the date. Beyond that, we are only using standard Games for Windows Live non-SSA guidelines, which, per Microsoft, comes with 15 activations (after that, you can reset them with a call to Microsoft.)

According to this same thread, these online activations only apply to non-Server Side Activation games like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Bioshock 2. SSA games are games that are linked to your account and travels with you like STEAM. Non-SSA games are those that are sold without being linked. Only non-SSA games are affected by these activations.

Once your 15 activations are up, you must call Microsoft and pass their tests to prove that you're a legitimate owner. To do this, for digital distributed games, you must post a screenshot of your serial number and send it to Microsoft. For retail games, you must take a photo of your serial number and send it along. If this fails, they'll administer another test which the representative I talked to didn't provide me an answer to.

The second shocker for me is that apparently all Games for Windows games are region locked. A few hours ago, I was doing my personal investigation of the online activations with the Games for Windows Live representative and learned a chilling fact, these games are region locked like the console versions. Unfortunately, for me, I already asked for my parents to buy it in Hong Kong while on business trip which they did, now they have to return this.

Biggest issue here is that Microsoft nor any Games for Windows publishers have stated that the games are all region locked. At least the small good part is that you can still play the game offline but you can't use any of the XBOX Live functionality. However, here's the thing, if I purchase the game, shouldn't I get the full functionality? It comes to show it's the fault of Microsoft for failing to provide such crucial information to those who are going to purchase these games overseas if they are to be on business trips or just on vacation. This is an absolute bummer.

Source: Scaling Back BioShock 2's DRM & 1-877-274-4349 (Games for Windows Live Customer Care)

Hopefully this will help those stuck in my situation or the Bioshock situation.