Sony may be removing regional restrictions

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  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    Hello Legion Gamers!

    When I read about this, I thought about you @GoLLuM13 as I remember you mentioning it several times, so in case you have not heard about it yet, I thought it may be of interest: Sone may be removing regional restrictions. There was a post a few days ago on Twitter/X about it:

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    And it seems to be the case, here is one of those images zoomed in:

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    It may be that now, having a PlayStation Now account will get you bonuses, but it may no longer be a factor restricting the game purchase. So hopefully soon you and everyone in those territories will get better access to some of Sony's games, if this is a begginning of a wider trend to ease up those restrictions 😊
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  • GoLLuM13's Avatar
    Level 52
    Obviously, I heard about it 😜 but that's because I did my own investigation about it 👀
    I took a French account and an Algerian account (I have access to both)
    When you check the content for Playstation as a publisher on Steam you have it as follow
    In France 🇫🇷
    All : 68
    DLC : 42
    Game : 23
    Demo : 1
    OST : 1
    Software : 1

    In Algeria 🇩🇿
    All : 57
    DLC : 39
    Game : 17
    Software : 1

    Now in details what is missing :
    6 Games :
    1. Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition
    2. Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut
    3. Until Dawn
    4. Lego Horizon Adventures (but upgrade digital deluxe is available)
    5. Midnight Murder Club
    6. The Last of Us Part II
    7. Bonus : Lost Soul Aside (pre-order)
    3DLCs :
    1. Spiderman 2 Digital Deluxe Upgrade
    2. God of War Ragnarok Deluxe Edition
    3. God of War Ragnarok Digital Artbook
    OST :
    1. God of War Ragnarok OST
    Demo :
    1. Midnight Murder Club
    While they are going on the right direction, it's not enough and it makes no sense at all. Why can't we buy in these regions God of War Ragnarok Deluxe when we can buy the "normal edition" (Same for Spider-Man) ? and on the opposite why is it possible to have an upgrade pack for Lego Horizon and not the main game ?
    Tag me to be sure I see the answer and reply to you / Taguez moi pour être sûr que je vois la réponse et vous réponde en retour
    Most of my writings in no particular order (mostly in French) / La plupart de mes écrits sans ordre particulier
    >> HERE/ ICI <<

  • RatlleRo's Avatar
    Level 13
    Removing restrictions is always beneficial for gamers. Let's hope this will be done.
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @GoLLuM13 You know, I initially thought this was to do with their recent presentation and how they will be treating their PC ports in the future. PS5 is their most profitable console to date, got them over 136 billion dollars by now. So they want to protect that value, and Hermen Hulst said that there will be a “thoughtful” and “measured” approach to porting Sony games to PC.

    This is the other side of the coin of removing restrictions for those of us who do not have a PS5: removing restrictions can make PS5 exclusives more accessible in more places, but it is combined with slowing down the process of porting exclusives to other platforms as another way of protecting potential profits, maybe.

    Anyway, those were my ponderings on the matter, but it does not explain why the standard edition is available in some regions while the deluxe is not, or that Lego Horizon situation. Economically, I do not see much sense in it, and it does not fit the "profit protect" theory all that well. Maybe the reasons could be legal rather than economic?
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @RatlleRo It is beneficial, true, but hopefully not as a tradeoff for something else. In this case, we may see fewer PC ports, for example. Sigh...
  • GoLLuM13's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch I tried to understand but it didn't make sense as much as restricting their games on other regions while they want to earn more money 👀
    Tag me to be sure I see the answer and reply to you / Taguez moi pour être sûr que je vois la réponse et vous réponde en retour
    Most of my writings in no particular order (mostly in French) / La plupart de mes écrits sans ordre particulier
    >> HERE/ ICI <<

  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @GoLLuM13 What about actual devices, how easy is it to buy those in regions with restrictions?
  • GoLLuM13's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch I'll talk about the North African market, as long as you have the money you can easily find devices PS5 - PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro (imported from Europe, UAE or even Japan), you can find PlayStation Network Wallet cards for French, Canadian, US or UAE accounts (since there isn't any store for the North African region), we also found Steam wallet cards (EUR or USD). From this you have a quick vision of the market, devices (consoles just like PCs are available) and wallet cards are also available for both platforms, so there's no real reason to restrict these regions on PC 👀
    Tag me to be sure I see the answer and reply to you / Taguez moi pour être sûr que je vois la réponse et vous réponde en retour
    Most of my writings in no particular order (mostly in French) / La plupart de mes écrits sans ordre particulier
    >> HERE/ ICI <<

  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @GoLLuM13 Reminds me of that quote by Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer:

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    I guess the gaming industry and platforms in particular have made much progress lately 😅
  • GoLLuM13's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch nice one, in French we say something like "why make it simple when you can make it complicated?" 😂
    Tag me to be sure I see the answer and reply to you / Taguez moi pour être sûr que je vois la réponse et vous réponde en retour
    Most of my writings in no particular order (mostly in French) / La plupart de mes écrits sans ordre particulier
    >> HERE/ ICI <<