'We are doing our best to resolve most of it': Stellar Blade's PC release will be restricted in 130 countries as the devs fight to have it lifted

As I eagerly await the launch of Stellar Blade on PC in June, I can’t help but feel a pang of disappointment for myself and fellow fans who reside in one of the 130 countries where the game is region-locked. It’s a bummer to know that some of us won’t be able to join the fun due to geographical restrictions.

The complete list of nations where Stellar Blade’s PC launch will not be accessible can be found on SteamDB. Specifically, six countries – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, and Vietnam – do not have any set price for the game, while it is entirely prohibited from being activated or purchased in all other countries.

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The list contains three country codes that are not well-known: AN, FX, and XD. AN refers to the Netherlands Antilles, where Dutch gamers can utilize their NL accounts for purchases. On the other hand, FX is short for Metropolitan France, and players from there can use their French accounts instead. Lastly, XD stands for Dubai, and players based in that region can make use of their UAE accounts for transactions.

Although developers at Shift Up mentioned on social media that PlayStation Network (PSN) connection is optional, this sequence of countries seems to be correlated with PSN accessibility.

It’s not unprecedented for a game to be limited on PSN even if it doesn’t necessitate its use. In fact, as recently as this year, PlayStation imposed a PSN restriction on Horizon Forbidden West more than 10 months after its debut, despite the game having no online connectivity needs.

As a passionate gaming enthusiast, I must say that the necessity of PlayStation Network (PSN) requirements has sparked quite a heated debate within our gaming community. This controversy seemed to ignite when Sony implemented it for Helldivers 2, leading players to express their discontent through mass review-bombing, leaving over 200,000 negative reviews. Since that time, the PSN requirement has been attached to all PC releases from Sony, such as God of War: Ragnarok, and once again, the community responded with another wave of review-bombs.

It’s clear that the use of PSN accounts isn’t widely preferred, yet Sony persists in keeping this requirement. Although they mentioned that PSN accounts could be optional for players, this applies only to regions where these accounts are accessible. Previously, PCG’s Harvey Randall has detailed the reasons behind this, but essentially, it appears to be related to exchange rates. When a game is priced significantly lower in one country compared to another, there’s an increased risk of key resellers exploiting the price gap and selling these cheaper keys on the black market.

We are actively engaging with the publisher regarding the region lock problem, and we are making every effort to remedy the majority of it as swiftly as possible.

It appears that the developers of Helldivers 2 had quite a bit of negotiation to remove the PSN requirement, making it unclear if they can achieve this, but given the effort, it’s certainly worth attempting.

2025-05-19 14:17

‘We are doing our best to resolve most of it’: Stellar Blade’s PC release will be restricted in 130 countries as the devs fight to have it lifted

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