Cringe, why region lock the game from some countries?

[Blue Spark]

Like why? some of my friends can't even see the store page, or it just shows them the game is not available in their region etc.

[Tintler]

Blame Dion.
Google; "Saudi Arabia Dion Ban FFXVI"

[SirReco]

Saudi Arabia asked Square Enix to remove the gay romance from the game or it would be banned.
Sqaure Enix said FU.

[Blue Spark]

Why not just ban it from saudi arabia only why it affects the middle east and south asia? like it makes no sense, I dont think any other gov or country gives a flying F about it.

[Vayne]

Can SE not lump every country next to Saudi and UAE with them? We had no issues with so many other games... SE only ones being like this.

[Arbor]

Gay romance

[Sage Pirotess]

So where is it banned.

[Blue Spark]

Like ridiculous how it even has the Arabic language supported and then it's banned in the whole middle east.

[Okami]

Originally posted by Blue Spark:

Like ridiculous how it even has the Arabic language supported and then it's banned in the whole middle east.

I found it pretty ironic in fact :D teasing, but denying access due to tight ass mindset

[IAmTH3LAW]

Those countries don't deserve it obviously.

[Voron]

The game also cannot be activated in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. If the first two countries can be explained by sanctions (although Visions of Mana has no such restrictions), then why Kazakhstan suffered is not clear. So the publisher won't get my $70.

[Blue Spark]

Originally posted by Voron:

The game also cannot be activated in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. If the first two countries can be explained by sanctions (although Visions of Mana has no such restrictions), then why Kazakhstan suffered is not clear. So the publisher won't get my $70.

Again the game has also Russian language support and then it's blocked in there as well, it's ridiculous, I don't really get their point of that.

[Snake]

Originally posted by Voron:

The game also cannot be activated in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. If the first two countries can be explained by sanctions (although Visions of Mana has no such restrictions), then why Kazakhstan suffered is not clear. So the publisher won't get my $70.

Mostly likely because operating a "Kazakhstan" account is popular thing in russia to be able to continue using steam and not leaving their country. Joking, though avoiding sanctions like that is popular. Maybe KZ is somewhat against gay romance, too?

[Snake]

Originally posted by Blue Spark:

Originally posted by Voron:

The game also cannot be activated in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. If the first two countries can be explained by sanctions (although Visions of Mana has no such restrictions), then why Kazakhstan suffered is not clear. So the publisher won't get my $70.

Again the game has also Russian language support and then it's blocked in there as well, it's ridiculous, I don't really get their point of that.

While blocking Kazakhstan is weird indeed, I suspect it is connected to some social issues with open gay relationship exposure? Might also be a precautuious thing by SE. SEGA also doesn't let KZ and UA pre-order their games nowadays, only opens post-release purchases (rip bonuses). Also, many games got their localisations done, even in russian, since companies spent many years on these games like with RE4? Or hoped the war would end soon and they would open their sales back.
belarus and russia get their sales cancelled due to sanctions so that russians won't pay sale taxes and thus fund their government's external agressive actions. Hope it helps.

[Kabob]

Say Gex

[Человек-Банан]

Originally posted by Snake:

Originally posted by Voron:

The game also cannot be activated in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. If the first two countries can be explained by sanctions (although Visions of Mana has no such restrictions), then why Kazakhstan suffered is not clear. So the publisher won't get my $70.

Mostly likely because operating a "Kazakhstan" account is popular thing in russia to be able to continue using steam and not leaving their country. Joking, though avoiding sanctions like that is popular. Maybe KZ is somewhat against gay romance, too?

Not really, in fact there were hearings about lgbt recently and as the result, government only banned lgbt exposure to minors and said it's fine for adults. The game is 18+ rated anyway, so it shouldn't have been a problem.