[Kwpolska]

The game requires a PlayStation Network account, and those cannot be created in the banned countries. The controversy was caused by the fact that the PSN requirement and country bans weren't enforced on launch, so people bought a game that then stopped being available to them.

[armada651]

> The controversy was caused by the fact that the PSN requirement and country bans weren't enforced on launch, so people bought a game that then stopped being available to them.

From the article it doesn't sound like those people are getting banned though. It's specifically the people who use a VPN to purchase the game in another region. So it's not the people just trying to play their game that they bought on launch, it's the people trying to get around region restrictions put in place on the Steam store after the PSN requirement was added.

[codetrotter]

But why is PSN not in those countries

[Propelloni]

It is tangentially discussed further down. Despite appearances the internet is a fragmented space with different laws and regulations depending on the location of the user. The service provider has to account for this. And while many large cooperations just steamroll the smallest and disorganized entities (e.g. Liberia), this does not usually work with better organized ones (e.g. Nigeria). This can make it too onerous to run a given service in a given jurisdiction with a low ROI. For example, do business in Argentina, try to lawfully get your money out, and see how far you get.

[tiberious726]

https://ofac.treasury.gov/sanctions-programs-and-country-inf...

[Kwpolska]

The list of countries not allowed to buy the game [0] is longer than the US sanctions list.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1csgabv/map_of_...