In more recent times, Sony Corporation, known for creating the PlayStation gaming platform, has put considerable effort into venturing into the PC gaming market. This is evident in their strategy of releasing numerous exclusive titles from their PlayStation Studios on Steam, often following their debut on PS4 and PS5 by several months or years.
This venture has demonstrated remarkable success, but it’s faced setbacks due to Sony unintentionally limiting its growth by region-locking its games and removing them from sale in over 170 countries where the PlayStation Network (PSN) isn’t available, even though these games don’t necessitate a PSN account. However, Sony is now reversing this decision.
On Friday afternoon, gamers across these regions started observing PlayStation games on their Steam software, sparking rumors that Sony might be easing its territory restrictions. This was later corroborated by information from SteamDB – an external platform that monitors updates happening behind the scenes in Steam’s system.
It appears that in the update histories for games such as Helldivers 2, God of War Ragnarök, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, most previously restricted regions have been lifted. Consequently, these titles are now once again available for purchase in those countries.
Approximately a year ago, Sony enforced region locking on its PC releases outside PSN countries, following an attempt to compel Helldivers 2 players to establish a PSN account in order to continue playing the game they had already bought. After experiencing significant negative reviews (review bombing) of Arrowhead’s co-op shooter due to this requirement, Sony opted against implementing it.
Despite removing Helldivers 2 from sale, Sony has maintained a policy that makes all subsequent PlayStation releases on PC unavailable in specific regions, regardless of whether they require PSN. Fans have been vocal and persistent in their opposition to this policy for several months, which ultimately led Sony to remove the need for PSN from four games in January and, more recently, lift the region locks.
An essential point to highlight is that they haven’t completely disappeared. Out of the initial 170+ countries that were blacklisted, seven persist: Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam (Vietnam barred Steam entirely in 2024 due to a licensing games dispute). The ongoing conflict in Ukraine might be the reason Sony continues to avoid selling its games in Russia, but the reasons behind the continued blacklists for the other countries remain unclear.
It’s pleasing to witness Sony make a move on this issue at last – an action that should have been taken much earlier, given its questionable nature and the fact that it was problematic from the start. The PlayStation manufacturer has endured relentless criticism from gamers, creators, and media since the day regional restrictions were implemented, as people struggled to comprehend the reasoning behind the decision and couldn’t fathom how it served their interests.
It doesn’t matter what led to it, but what’s crucial is that the company has finally relented on this issue, which means fans residing in regions once barred can now play PlayStation games (often considered top-notch PC games). This change brings a significant increase in potential sales for Sony.
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2025-06-14 01:09