Why Bandai Namco is banning my country?

[Wymn]

Since early 2023 Bandai Namco started to ban Venezuela from buying any late 2021 game up to date. From Doraemon to Sword Art Online Last Recollection.

Like for example, we could preorder Armored Core 6 but one day before the game release there was no option, not even a option to buy the game after release. Same thing with Elden Ring and Tales Of Arise, we could buy the game the first 2 months then out of nowhere now we can't even access to the steam page (Is this even legal for Steam? lol).

Why is only happening to Venezuela? and yes... already contacted people from all over the world and they can access to Bandai Namco and buy their games with no issues at all, go to steamdb and you will see Venezuela as the only country banned in their lastest games. I'm on a discord where there is people from Cuba, Nicaragua and others countries with WAY WORSE political situation and worse laws for games and virtual stuff and they seem fine. And yes, already talked with Bandai Namco support from their official website and they said they don't answer those stuff...

Two weeks ago we could even play for free Digimon Master Online and 2 days ago we can't... the game page now is not available, the only digimon available for us is Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth... for now i guess...

So... is there any logic and legal explaination to that? and please leave outside the international embargo and stuff because only Bandai Namco is the only company in all steam doing this to us. We even don't know if it steam or any other issues.

Alse we can't even buy Scarlet Nexus, as soon as i add the game to cart, there is no game added. Happens with delux and ultimate aswell.

On another note: we can buy just fine their lastest games in Playstation store and Xbox with no issues so... why we can't in Steam? I don't have a PS4/PS5 or Xbox Series S|X tho.

[Iceira]

And still not steam issue or debat on steam what a game company do.

he open the door with "Why Bandai Namco is banning my country?
Since early 2023 Banda, and that's politic.

[Wymn]

Iceira W10 eredeti hozzászólása:

The EU considers that the presidential elections in May 2018 in Venezuela were neither free, fair, nor credible, this mean you live under a rock and lost all creditaility , you have no clue on the consequece some company see this, you think rest of the world do not know what we see what you are, its will take years and good will for privat company to trust you again, as Neo from matirx said it"You live in a dream world", and therte is nothing you can do about it and you think steam is going to protect you, and a game compan that will not or go back and its there choise is not even steam's problem im sure a steam moderator will close this debat they dont like politic , but they had audit there own rules own rules and that is a mistake, you have no protections here anymore.

i going to report this post to stop this crap and so should others, we dont need someone tell a company in whats steam should do about it. or its game company, it dont belong here.

I'm not asking for protection and nothing more. I just want official statement of why they do this since there are no more devs or publishing doing that other than them and only here on steam because all those new game can be played just fine in PS4/PS5 and Xbox. Nothing more. If you thing I'm asking to god to save me and bring me holy protection then you are really wrong.

I'm even being nice here without insulting anyone. Go ahead and do it.

[Iceira]

Because you dont get it, plenty of company in the world that follow international law. its has consequence then then you dont do it.

And the company dont need to tell you anything you have no power there. you are not even entitled to a reply.

you dont know how companys work today, they dont reply so they get in a corner they cant get out of, i doubt you will get a reply, more aviod reply will fit there.

company try aviod offending customer they are not stupid.
gl get a reply from them.

[Kral2012]

The funny thing is that it only bans games released by Bandai Namco from 2022 onwards, you can buy and play Bandai Namco games here before 2022, so if the company bans a specific country it shouldn't let me buy Sekiro or Ace Combat 7, but I can buy and play them.

It doesn't make sense

[Kral2012]

Well now that I check the Bandai Namco store here on steam, there are some games that do not come out (Elden Ring, Naruto x Boruto and One Piece Odyssey), but games like Park Beyond and Armore Core 6, even when I can not buy them, I can see them on their pages, curious fact, there are some games of 2022-2023 Bandai Namco that you can buy, I do not know if you try to buy them, you get an error if you are from Venezuela, but in general all this is strange.

It seems that it is more a selective banning of some games in Venezuela than anything else, the reason? no idea, it just doesn't make sense.

[Wymn]

Kral2012 eredeti hozzászólása:

Well now that I check the Bandai Namco store here on steam, there are some games that do not come out (Elden Ring, Naruto x Boruto and One Piece Odyssey), but games like Park Beyond and Armore Core 6, even when I can not buy them, I can see them on their pages, curious fact, there are some games of 2022-2023 Bandai Namco that you can buy, I do not know if you try to buy them, you get an error if you are from Venezuela, but in general all this is strange.

It seems that it is more a selective banning of some games in Venezuela than anything else, the reason? no idea, it just doesn't make sense.

Sekiro was published by Activision and well for Ace Combat 7, the game doesn't have what other games from 2022+ have.

Forgot to close this but here is what a japanese friend of mine manage to find, i will keep in short: Bandai Namco have a VERY intrusive system that will scan your PC and your IP in real time and also they want your country give even more information to them. Venezuela have a very weird and not so effective cyber security laws that despice all of this. This only affect STEAM since Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo can't do this because software limitations. Games like Digimon Survivor, Pacman, Klonoa, Tales Of Arise, Armored Core 6, SAO Last Recollection, Tekken 8, Jujutsu Kaisen, Naruto X Boruto and many other are banned from us because of this.

One of this example is Blue Protocol, the BNO Launcher and the game will scan your PC and see if your IP and other files are not from Japan at all. thats why they manage to ban you even if you use VPN, because IT scan your WHOLE PC, not only your IP. Tho it only affect to the HDD/SSD where they are installed. It also can bypass partition so basically if you want to play Blue Protocol JP, you have to install the launcher and the game in a standalone HDD/SSD so that intrusive thing they have can't access to your SO files.

Basically: Unless Bandai Namco decide to stop online support from those games, change their ToS/EULA or Venezuela accept bandai namco laws or change their cybersecurity law, this will continue to happen.

Note: Many devs and publishers do this but in a minimun scale.

NOTE 2: This is why when you launch for example Scarle Nexus, you NEED to agree with some ToS and other ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that only appear in ONLINE GAMES such as MMORPGs, mobile games and other stuff. No other companies do this unless is a online game or a single player game with live service (GAAS).

[davidb11]

The EU has no power over Venezuela.
And even if the elections there aren't legit, that doesn't normally make game companies no longer sell their games in that country.

[Kral2012]

davidb11 eredeti hozzászólása:

The EU has no power over Venezuela.
And even if the elections there aren't legit, that doesn't normally make game companies no longer sell their games in that country.

That's my point, and that's why I mentioned it before, it doesn't make sense for a company to block some of their games in a country and leave some others without problem, if Bandai Namco has problems with some country simply ban the whole country so that their products can't be bought in that country, it's the most logical solution, but that's not what is happening.

[Iceira]

Game company had made a choise and they will stick to that untill they will not someday.
why will they reply with a reason that will haunt or effect them later.

[Kral2012]

Iceira eredeti hozzászólása:

Game company had made a choise and they will stick to that untill they will not someday.
why will they reply with a reason that will haunt or effect them later.

I'm not saying that Bandai Namco has or not the right to do what they do, companies can do whatever they want, but understand that we also have the intrigue of why only we get this measure.

Square Enix recently explained why their latest game is banned in Arab countries, they gave a public statement explaining to their consumers why this measure, I don't know, I think it's good courtesy to do that, and that's basically what we, who are affected by this decision of Bandai Namco are looking for.

[Iceira]

You still think you are entitle to a reply, and you are not, they dont have to explan you anything in why a region is blocking them. ( thats politic and no matter what they say here will not make it better. )

its easy to get blocked make a game no one like.
we just dont think on this here.

[Kral2012]

Iceira eredeti hozzászólása:

You still think you are entitle to a reply, and you are not, they dont have to explan you anything in why a region is blocking them. ( thats politic and no matter what they say here will not make it better. )

its easy to get blocked make a game no one like.
we just dont think on this here.

Ok, I don't understand why this is political for you when it is simply a PR problem, tell me what would you do if a game you want to buy is banned in your country?

[Kral2012]

Iceira eredeti hozzászólása:

You still think you are entitle to a reply, and you are not, they dont have to explan you anything in why a region is blocking them. ( thats politic and no matter what they say here will not make it better. )

its easy to get blocked make a game no one like.
we just dont think on this here.

Also you are lying, they are the ones that are blocking some of their games here, not us, not the government, not steam, and again, you don't seem to get it but they are the only publisher that does that to us.

I just want to be able to buy Elden Ring and be able to support From Software with their products, but the publisher (in this case Namco Bandai) for reasons nobody knows blocks some of his games.

[Iceira]

Kral2012 eredeti hozzászólása:

Iceira eredeti hozzászólása:

You still think you are entitle to a reply, and you are not, they dont have to explan you anything in why a region is blocking them. ( thats politic and no matter what they say here will not make it better. )

its easy to get blocked make a game no one like.
we just dont think on this here.

Also you are lying, they are the ones that are blocking some of their games here, not us, not the government, not steam, and again, you don't seem to get it but they are the only publisher that does that to us.

I just want to be able to buy Elden Ring and be able to support From Software with their products, but the publisher (in this case Namco Bandai) for reasons nobody knows blocks some of his games.

And so do you, a game company do not have access to ISP blocking list or router, they can have region sell lock that not same as blocking. as goverment can do, we has seen titles not sold in other region that not same as blocking.

Thats the problem then you mixup things, what goverment can do or country or region locking.
the Internet in itself do not block, its been made by goverment or, you will not have a internet if all ISP block each other, there will not be a WWW.

[Wymn]

Kral2012 eredeti hozzászólása:

Iceira eredeti hozzászólása:

You still think you are entitle to a reply, and you are not, they dont have to explan you anything in why a region is blocking them. ( thats politic and no matter what they say here will not make it better. )

its easy to get blocked make a game no one like.
we just dont think on this here.

Also you are lying, they are the ones that are blocking some of their games here, not us, not the government, not steam, and again, you don't seem to get it but they are the only publisher that does that to us.

I just want to be able to buy Elden Ring and be able to support From Software with their products, but the publisher (in this case Namco Bandai) for reasons nobody knows blocks some of his games.

The problem is about cyber security laws, probably you didn't read what I reply to you. If not, go and read up there.

Iceira eredeti hozzászólása:

Kral2012 eredeti hozzászólása:

Also you are lying, they are the ones that are blocking some of their games here, not us, not the government, not steam, and again, you don't seem to get it but they are the only publisher that does that to us.

I just want to be able to buy Elden Ring and be able to support From Software with their products, but the publisher (in this case Namco Bandai) for reasons nobody knows blocks some of his games.

And so do you, a game company do not have access to ISP blocking list or router, they can have region sell lock that not same as blocking. as goverment can do, we has seen titles not sold in other region that not same as blocking.

Actually Bandai Namco hace access to your IP and other stuff related to your PC and your data. Is the very same popup you get as soon you start Elden Ring and other games and the same you have to accept if not, you cannot play the game.

Yet I already got the answer from a Japanese friend. Is up there.