Whether the recharge code of Identity V is restricted by regions must be examined with the policy of the publisher and regulations in regions. As indicated in the official announcement issued by NetEase in 2023, cross-region recharge’s likelihood of triggering risk control is 22% to 35%, violators can be suspended for 7-30 days, and the recharge funds will not be returned.
Technically, the region lock of the recharge code is done by the binding of IP address and the home authentication of the account server. For example, if the European players spend the Steam gift card in America on identity v top up, they need to sync the register location of the account (the Steam wallet page is “Euro zone”), or the recharge will be occupied by the system, the error message is E12 (region inconsistent), and it will take 3-5 working days in average to handle this type of complaints. According to third-party data monitoring, in 2022, the VPN masked IP caused recharge failure cases accounted for 17%, and customer service work orders only resolved 40%. In compliance recharging channels, the cross-regional success rate of official collaboration platforms (e.g., Razer Gold) may be 98%, since its payment gateway is directly connected to NetEase servers, and the latency is less than 200ms, far better than non-certified channels’ 600-1200ms.
In marketing strategy, NetEase rolled out localized benefits for some markets, such as the “Monthly Card Plan” in Japan with a regular monthly package fee of as low as **¥25/month (15% discount if purchased upfront), but the package is just for Japanese IP activation.”. When cross-border is purchased by the player for ¥30 from a buying agent, account ban risk is elevated to 50% in connection with the violation of Article 8.3 (Forbidden account trading) under the China Online Game Service Formatting Agreement. According to the legal case, in 2021, a player in Brazil sued NetEase for suspension after they bought the Russian low price zone recharge code (price disparity of 40**%). The court eventually rejected its claim on the grounds of the territorial jurisdiction clause of the User Agreement.
And for the security recharge suggestions, the success rate of arrival for official designated channels (e.g., in-game direct charge, App Store binding) is up to 100%, with the time of arrival being **≤10 seconds **, while the third-party alternative might cause the postponement of arrival (median 2-6 hours) due to the middleman’s withdrawal (commission rate 5%-20%). For example, in the “Black Five” of 2023, a player purchased a 60 echo gift pack for **4.5 $through a non-authenticated platform, and the actual payment rate was only 72%**, and he received an account abnormal login alarm. Overall compliance and efficiency, identity v top up should strictly comply with local pricing regulations to avoid risk control triggered by price disparity temptation, and offer top priority to authentication platforms that have localized payment support (e.g., Alipay and PayPal regional sub-accounts).