Best gaming VPN

Unlock games early

A lot of games these days are released in digital form on digital storefronts. This presents some interesting opportunities for gamers who want to be among the first to play newly released games. The average digital game release happens in phases. Each phase represents a different time zone on the globe. This means, for instance, that we can play a game in the EU several hours before it unlocks in the United States, but a lot later than a gamer in Australia. By using a VPN server in the region where the game unlocks first, you can start playing at the earliest possible time. Believe it or not, this is a big deal for those who livestream their games and want to present (e.g. on YouTube) their impressions of a new title to their fans first. This location trick works for most PC games, as well as console titels on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch, as long as your consoles are safely tucked away behind the VPN-connection.

Most games are released in New Zealand first. Make sure the provider you pick has servers available there. Australia is a good second option.

If you are looking to unlock your games early with a VPN, check if the provider of your choice has servers available in New Zealand. Usually, most games release in this region first. If there are no servers there, Australia is often a good second option. Be mindful that the VPN server speeds in these regions can be a lot slower compared to those in Europe and the US. The best VPN for gaming in Australia will most likely pale in a speed comparison to a server in Japan, even if the geographical distance to both countries is massive from the EU. Contrary to using a VPN to use regional pricing, the chance of a platform banning you for unlocking a game early is minimal. Officially it is against the rules of most gaming platforms, but they don’t seem very worried about this phenomenon.

Play games anywhere using a VPN

Those same region restrictions you see in movies and tv shows, are often also applied to games. Some titles are blocked in certain regions, because they show things that are illegal in these regions. If you are traveling to these countries, for business as a for instance, you will find that these games on you laptop suddenly no longer work. By logging into a VPN server in your home country, you are able to find working servers again and start up you favorite game for some well-deserved downtime.

Germany is a country where VPN is quite popular, mostly cause of censorship of games. For a long time it was forbidden to show human blood in games in Germany, which lead to developers making specialized versions of their games. If you find your game has green blood, it is most likely a specialized German version of this title. Titles like the Wolfenstein games, which feature an alternate universe where the Nazis won WWII, are understandably modified to not show swastikas and the like. A lot of Germans wanting to play the original versions, use VPN to buy games in other regions.

Unlock special items in-game

Gaming on your smartphone is more popular than ever. More and more games are being released, and some of these use your location. The ever popular Pokémon Go for instance, depends on GPS and your IP Address to properly relay your location to the game. These games require you to go to real world locations in order to catch the titular Pocket Monsters, or complete certain tasks. You are of course, meant to ‘catch them all’. But there are special Pokémon out there to be found, and they are tied to specific locations, sometimes even specific continents. There are also countries where the game has not been released, and you are dependent on a VPN for Android or iOS to even download Pokémon Go from the Android- or Apple store.

To these fans a VPN, paired with a GPS Spoofer, is the only way to be able to complete their collection. Using a gaming VPN for Android or iOS you can relay your internet signal through another location. This can lead to some nice perks, such as that illusive Pokemon you could not find in your own region, or battling it out with a friend halfway across the world. We do have to note that using a GPS Spoofer will take a little looking around. They are usually not simply downloadable from the Appstore. You may have to ‘Root’ your device, in order to be able to start up programs from outside the Appstore. Because these applications are not checked for malicious code by Google or Apple, they can harm your device, and you privacy.

Developer Niantic is also constantly trying to block GPS Spoofing and the corresponding apps. Recently there was a large wave of apps blocked, but these are usually modified quickly to be able to run again. A quick Google-search teaches us that there are still plenty of working GPS Spoofers out there for Pokemon Go. These include versions that do not require you to ‘Root’ your device. Be sure to use your VPN when using these hacks, so that your data always travels through the secure VPN tunnel.

Get gaming deals with a VPN

The average level of income can differ quite a bit per country. To make sure that everybody can enjoy their games for a fair price, a lot of companies choose to price their wares differently from countries with a higher average income. Comparable to using your VPN to get the best prices on plane tickets, you can use your VPN to net you some sweet gaming deals. These discounts can be significant, but keep in mind that developers and storefronts are taking the hit for your cheap game. They are often not happy with customers skirting the region restrictions. While buying a physical product on a disc, this is often not a problem. Nowadays, very few physical games contain region locking, so you are free to try and find the best deals for these. Just keep in mind that imported games can sometimes lack things like localization. That Japanese RPG you imported, may not contain English text at all.

If you want to use a VPN for Japanese games, you need to be on the lookout for a provider that has ample servers available in this nation. The connection speeds are less important, as you’re not trying to play games, just buy them from a website. Do keep in mind that a lot of webshops do not ship outside of their own region, so you will need to find one that is able to ship to your location. There are also services available that allow you to ship items from abroad to your home address.

Pay regional prices

If you like to buy your games digitally, things get slightly more complicated. Steam, the largest gaming platform on PC, has put in a lot of effort to make sure that you cannot buy games outside of your own region. With good reason, as a lot of their regional prices are significantly lower than in an average European country. The same game that sets you back fifty Euros, can cost a fraction of that in India. Steam is absolutely not happy with customers trying to abuse this system. They may even decide to ban your account from being able to purchase items in their store. This means you can still access the games connected to your account, but you will no longer be able to purchase new ones, or trade on the Steam marketplace.

If you are adamant on using a VPN to exploit regional pricing, we advise you to make a secondary account with a local address for the region you want to use. This way, you will not risk your main account catching a ban. Besides Steam, there are a lot of other platforms that allow regional pricing. A VPN for Bethesda, Ubisoft or the Epic Games Store can make back its original investment quite easily. Do note that out of the above list, the Epic Games Store does not allow regional pricing, to the detriment of people wanting to play their games in low income regions. Also keep in mind that the policies of these companies can change. If they suddenly decide to act on these infringements, the consequences for your account may be severe.

Protect yourself from DDoS attack with a VPN

With the recent surge in competitive online gaming, the use of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks against gamers has been on the rise. This attack overwhelms the connection with data requests, making your internet practically unusable. The first time we saw these attacks was after the incredible success of a small game called Minecraft. People can run their own Minecraft servers, on which others can play. Some of these became so popular, and were earning so much money, that some overly enterprising youths decided to make sure that the competition would be eliminated. They invented a service called a Webstresser, which enabled them to easily use a DDoS attack against the Minecraft servers of the competition. Eventually, they realized they could make even more money by offering their webstresser as a service to others, leading to a large number of attacks.

One of the more talked about examples is the Christmas 2014 attack on Sony and Microsoft game servers. During the most busy weeks of the year, their services were completely taken down for days, impacting millions of gamers worldwide. With this success in the back of their minds, we have even seen DDoS attacks being used to attack individual gamers. It can be quite a pain when suddenly your game completely stops working because your internet connection is overloaded with traffic. All because someone halfway across the world can’t handle losing. These DDoS attacks are dependent on your IP address to relay this traffic to. If you have a direct connection to another player, there are often ways for the other party to find out where the traffic is coming from and input that data into a stressing service.