Update []: Sony has removed around 16 countries from Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls’ region block on PC, meaning fans from the likes of Pakistan and the Philippines can now officially buy it on Steam.
As reported previously, 132 countries are blocked from buying the fighter, likely due to issues with PSN region availability. That’s now been reduced to 116 countries blocked.
While it’s still a sizeable number that requires attention, it’s a step in the right direction, so here’s hoping Sony is paying attention and fully resolves this before the game’s release, on 6th August.
Original Story: It has not been a good week for Sony, and things just keep getting worse and worse.
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls fans have been complaining this weekend that the Japanese company has blocked the fighter’s PC release from a whopping 132 countries.
This is the same issue which has reared its ugly head before: the PSN is technically only supported in a handful of countries, and as an account is required for the ArcSys fighter, anyone from said nations is out of luck.
On the PS5, players from unsupported regions can get around the restrictions by making an account from another country – it’s technically against the terms of service, but it’s a grey area on consoles which has been recognised as a workaround since the inception of the PSN.
This isn’t possible on storefronts like Steam, however, as the game is simply not available in the unsupported countries, and using a VPN is a quick route to getting your account banned.
Various PC games from Sony have suffered the same setbacks over the years, including Stellar Blade, but dev Shift Up was able to use its clout to get the publisher to change its mind.
As the Korean studio owned the IP, though, it was probably a bit easier for it to throw its weight around. While ArcSys is the developer of Marvel Tokon, Sony owns the franchise.
So will this be resolved? Well, to be fair, the platform holder has eased its PSN restrictions in previous titles, so it’s possible. Given the emphasis on online multiplayer here, though, I do wonder if Marvel Tokon may just become a victim of the creaky and dated nature of PlayStation’s online infrastructure.
It’s just another reminder of how poorly Sony’s executing right now. Sure, it’s transitioning away from PC, but it still wants to flog as many copies of its live service games as possible.
The fact that over a hundred countries are still being blocked from buying the game beggars belief.
