What happened ?

[LucHuyetPhao]

I have a question that the Vietnam region doesn't see the game on the store anymore. I hope to get a response soon?

[jill920]

The publisher decided to block sales of CYGNI: All Guns Blazing in Vietnam, China, and Russia. This was a recent decision of KONAMI, as evident that people could still play the DEMO version during the previous Next Fest.

KONAMI also decided to block sales of many of its titles such as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance in Japan(???), Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and U.A.E.

There's no concrete answer as to why KONAMI did this.

Please check the steamDB page for KONAMI games. If you don't see the price listed for those countries, high chances that the game is blocked in those countries.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - https://steamdb.info/app/235460/
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing: https://steamdb.info/app/1248080/

CYGNI's Director (Nareg Kalenderian) has been informed of this issue, and still waiting for a (hopefully good) response.

Users in Vietnam, China, and Russia can still purchase CYGNI (and KONAMI's titles) by changing the Steam store region to supported countries, and have a working Bank account in those countries, but by doing this, they will be locked out of changing the Store region again for 3 months.
Steam Support Page regarding Store region: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/2B3F-DAEF-846B-A0E8

Hope for the best, by friend. I also want to play CYGNI.

[LucHuyetPhao]

Thank you for the information. This year with the drama about Sony, I also understand clearly about the greed of corporations

Originally posted by jill920:

The publisher decided to block sales of CYGNI: All Guns Blazing in Vietnam, China, and Russia. This was a recent decision of KONAMI, as evident that people could still play the DEMO version during the previous Next Fest.

KONAMI also decided to block sales of many of its titles such as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance in Japan(???), Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and U.A.E.

There's no concrete answer as to why KONAMI did this.

Please check the steamDB page for KONAMI games. If you don't see the price listed for those countries, high chances that the game is blocked in those countries.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - https://steamdb.info/app/235460/
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing: https://steamdb.info/app/1248080/

CYGNI's Director (Nareg Kalenderian) has been informed of this issue, and still waiting for a (hopefully good) response.

Users in Vietnam, China, and Russia can still purchase CYGNI (and KONAMI's titles) by changing the Steam store region to supported countries, and have a working Bank account in those countries, but by doing this, they will be locked out of changing the Store region again for 3 months.
Steam Support Page regarding Store region: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/2B3F-DAEF-846B-A0E8

Hope for the best, by friend. I also want to play CYGNI. :sad_seagull:

[mekalen]

It's not really Konami's fault, people in Vietnam should know that Steam has recently been blocked by the Vietnamese Authorities - I believe 2 months ago which is right after the steam next fest... ( https://www.gamesindustry.biz/steam-currently-banned-in-vietnam )
In China, you can't sell a game unless you go through them (even that is not easy i think), I am still waiting updates on China from Konami, but from our side, we have localised the game for this (both traditional and simplified) so fingers crossed it'll be possible (I'm sure people in China know better than me what's going on or alternative ways to access if needed - I wouldn't know until I hear back).
As for Russia, it's also not Konami's doing - as it's an industry wide boycott by the various platforms - it's too bad since we had also localised the game in Russian too ! ( https://www.wired.com/story/gaming-industry-unites-russia/ )
Sorry for all this, I'm sure you can imagine this is equally frustrating for us as an indie company to have such limitations in the market and hope we'll be able to get the game in those markets in some way!

[jill920]

Originally posted by mekalen:

It's not really Konami's fault, people in Vietnam should know that Steam has recently been blocked by the Vietnamese Authorities - I believe 2 months ago which is right after the steam next fest... ( https://www.gamesindustry.biz/steam-currently-banned-in-vietnam)

Hi, Mr. Meher,

Vietnamese authorities does not have power over which publisher can sell which titles to its Steam users. They (VN auth.) simply blocked the whole platform, but there are workarounds to circumvent this. Proof: I purchased Riven remake a few days ago without any problem.

If CYGNI (and other KONAMI's other titles) being rendered not purchasable, it is a one-sided decision from KONAMI, with the excuse of Vietnamese authorities banning Steam (not banning just KONAMI).

This isn't about who's right or wrong, or a fault of anyone. It was a simple business decision.
If anything, this thread proves that, there are still demand from developing countries such as Vietnam, and there are people from such country that want to support CYGNI, and KeelWorks.

All the best!

[mekalen]

I understand, and trust me, growing up in a developing country myself, I also want our game to reach as far and wide as possible. it will only be good to do so. I was sharing the information i had in hand about this, but thank you for the continued support from Vietnam and I'm sorry this is happening. It's not in our hand, but I will continue to discuss it further with Konami for sure, and I hope there will be a solution for these regions to access the game in one way or the other.
If any of you (those in the region) also have any suggestions that could help my discussions, please do send me a msg. thanks again for all the support.

[jill920]

Originally posted by mekalen:

If any of you (those in the region) also have any suggestions that could help my discussions, please do send me a msg. thanks again for all the support.

Thank you for response. Before my suggestion, I would like to say that, this suggestion is based purely on the notion that KeelWorks can directly contact KONAMI and have at least some say in sales matters (at least for publishing CYGNI), because, I (or we), as simple users/consumers without insider's knowledge, do not know how easy it is for a game studio to contact with a big publisher like KONAMI and how easy (or dificult) it is to influence their business decisions.

First of, it would be nice for KONAMI to fully disclose the reason why sales in Vietnam was banned (not just CYGNI, but other series like Metal Gear as well). For China and Russia, the reasons you mentioned above sounded plausible/believable, so there's no need to explain them further.
If KONAMI's decision was indeed caused by the Vietnamese authorities banning Steam platform, then, it's a misunderstanding. In this case, assuming KeelWorks does have some say in KONAMI's publishing matter, contact them and explain that, people from Vietnam can still buy games on Steam despite the ban, if they just lift the ban from their (KONAMI) side.

KeelWorks will probably need to make a case of cost/profit when enabling sales in Vietnam. How much does it cost to enable the sales of their games for Vietnamese users on Steam? And what are the expected sales figure from such region?

While I don't know about the process of publishing games on Steam and the accompanied costs, I can guarantee with you that, KeelWorks will have at least 4 copies of CYGNI: Deluxe Edition sold in Vietnam, from me alone.

Some people have hinted at the rampant piracy problem in Vietnam, especially in games such as Pro Evolution Soccer (published by KONAMI), but sales of such online games should not affect the sales of single-player experiences like Metal Gear Solid/Rising or CYGNI. If KONAMI is dead-set on banning Vietnam (which is hard to believe, as they had allowed users from Vietnam to purchase their games on Steam in the past), then there's no helping it, at this point, they are doing it out of spite, but let's hope it won't get to this point.

[mekalen]

Thanks for the input.

To clarify, I'm in constant talks with Konami, as our publishers we work closely together. However, as you'd appreciate, there are various teams involved in such a large organization, each dealing with different areas so communication is not always quick.

From what I understand, the main issue regarding Vietnam is the official government ban on Steam games. Perhaps smaller publishers or indies can ignore it and post there (doesn't make it legit), but large publishers like Konami cannot (understandably so). There's no doubt that Konami, just like KeelWorks, wants to sell in Vietnam and every other region they can, but it is their responsibility to ensure the sales are legal (i.e. they can't go against the government ban). So, the main focus or question is about this ban from Viet Authorities. You mentioned that this is a misunderstanding - could you clarify this particular point and why you think it is a misunderstanding?

What I can do is raise points or challenge information (as we're discussing here), but only if the info and suggestions are viable and legitimate. It needs to be based on concrete evidence. If I argue that some others are still able to sell games in Vietnam, it doesn't necessarily mean they are doing it legitimately. or Are they?
I also know they have a team dealing with such matters. But since this has been raised here, I wanted to clarify so all the supporters from such regions have a better understanding of where we stand.
I hope this helps and i really hope there will be a way to make the game accessible (legitimately) in vietnam.

[jill920]

Thank you for your response.

I will directly address this concern, as quoted here

Originally posted by mekalen:

Perhaps smaller publishers or indies can ignore it and post there (doesn't make it legit), but large publishers like Konami cannot (understandably so). There's no doubt that Konami, just like KeelWorks, wants to sell in Vietnam and every other region they can, but it is their responsibility to ensure the sales are legal (i.e. they can't go against the government ban).

I double-checked with other AAA publishers, and their big titles are still being sold/listed for Vietnamese users.
- 2K -Borderlands series
- Blizzard - Overwatch 2 + DLCs, Diablo V.
- CAPCOM - Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, etc.
- Playstation Publishing LLC - only Horizon Forbidden West + Ratchet & Clank: Rift Part are available, this is because their other multiplayer titles such as HELLDIVERS 2 require a PSN Account, they announced this during the peak of HELLDIVERS 2, so there's no silent-ban similar to KONAMI, the main thing here is transparency in communication.
- Rockstar Games.

If by your logical challenge, are these tripleA publishers doing.. questionable business in Vietnam through Steam?

Perhaps, KONAMI only banned the sales of their game in VN as a reactive action to the news of Vietnamese authorities banning Steam out of fear and not knowing fully about the country and its geopolitical situation, but the truth is, Vietnamese authorities don't care, they have more important matters than banning some Japanese video game publisher that does not interfere with national security.

Here, I will directly quote Eurogamer, in their article regarding the Steam-ban in Vietnam:

Originally posted by Eurogamer: VKikki Blake:

However, as reported in Vietnam.net, it's possible Steam has been taken down in Vietnam after local game developers complained about the scope and size of Steam's vast portfolio of games, claiming Vietnamese devs cannot compete with Steam's releases given they are subject to government approval and thousands of international games on Steam are not.

Citing it as "an injustice to domestic publishers", Vietnamese studios reportedly say that local game development "will die" if Steam is able to keep releasing games without the same government scrutiny as domestic games.

https://www.eurogamer.net/steam-is-now-banned-in-vietnam

From Vietnam.net, direct source in Vietnamese
https://vietnamnet.vn/nen-tang-steam-phat-hanh-game-khong-phep-vao-viet-nam-2271136.html

As you can see, the Vietnamese authorities only banned Steam AFTER some domestic game developers complained about the giant gaming platform. Halfheartedly banning Steam (which is easily circumvented) is their (VN Aut.) response to the complaints of the domestic developers. nothing more.

Currently, KONAMI does not have any physical offices in Vietnam, this simplifies a lot of problems because by not having a physical office, the Vietnamese auth. practically cannot do anything to KONAMI and its operation.

Well, the bottom line is, we still have no concrete reason as to why KONAMI delisted all of its games in various Asia regions, and specifically, CYGNI and Metal Gear series in Vietnam. We have to know the reason before we can proceed to the next steps. This is why it's important to know at which communication level can you make with KONAMI. Can you strike up a conversation casually, short and quick? Or any conversation has to be planned ahead, and in the form of a long meaningless meeting with slideshows and graphs?

[mekalen]

Thanks for this input I will discuss with Konami and if I have news I'll keep this thread posted. Hoping for a positive outcome at the end for gamers and fans from Vietnam.