Good, fuck geoblocking. Bandai 340k Capcom 396k Focus 2.8m Koch 1m Zenimax 1.6m Valve 1.6m
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_170
Judgement from the EU court of justice: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2023-09/cp230147en.pdf
ZERO excuse for geolocking to ever exist. we have technology beyond our wildest dreams to freely and instantly share content anywhere in the world and fucking corporate hogs can’t let a single good thing exist.
I hope whomever thinks of, participates in implementing or just thinks it’s a good idea to geolock shit gets gout.
The publishers provided those keys to their distributors for sale and distribution of the PC video games in the Member States concerned. As a result, users located outside a designated Member State were prevented from activating a given PC video game with Steam activation keys.
The Commission found that by bilaterally agreeing to geo-block certain PC video games from outside a specific territory, Valve and each publisher partitioned the EEA market in violation of EU antitrust rules.
Good.
The listed countries look like countries that often get regional pricing. Was the geo blocking to allow for regional pricing in those areas?
I guess. But that doesn’t matter, it’s against a prime EU principle - free trade inside the EU. They can offer their products cheaper in those countries but they can’t tell other EU members not to buy there.
I actually got in contact with zenimax about that issue 10 years ago and after some back and forth they just forwarded me to their legal team. And I sure made a complaint with the EU about it. I’m sure there were lots of complaints about that issue but I feel somewhat validated right now.
I understand the principle, but in practice, the result of this will be negative.
So to comply, companies will now charge people in the poorer countries more money. epic w
Yes, it is a w. As I mentioned, they are free to sell their products at a lower price in certain countries but they can’t tell someone from Italy that they can’t buy their product in Hungary. I honestly can’t understand someone who defends this practice.
So someone from California can’t buy products in Mississippi, that’s just fair - or it’s ok just because it’s via the internet?
Fuck geoblocking.
I haven’t read full document but I’m Polish and remember that back in the day when buying some games off Steam you’ve got some kind of eastern European version that was separate from global one.
Other than DLC being incompatible, the biggest pain in the ass was that the language selection was very limited, commonly just Polish, Lithuanian and Russian (which nobody speaks here). If you weren’t fan of localization or wanted to play game in the English or original language you were out of luck.
Koch renamed to Plaion last year btw