Gamers from Ukraine have complained that Electronic Arts has restricted access to the new popular online shooter Battlefield 6 in the Zaporizhia region. EA representatives confirmed that its projects are unavailable in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions due to sanctions.
Gamers from Ukraine have complained that Electronic Arts has restricted access to the new popular online shooter Battlefield 6 in the Zaporizhia region. EA representatives confirmed that its projects are unavailable in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions due to sanctions.
Numerous reports of this issue appeared on EA’s forums after the release of Battlefield 6 on October 10, Gamedev DOU reports. Within hours of its release, it broke the franchise’s record with 747,440 concurrent players on Steam.
«Good afternoon, my name is Mykola, I’m from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. This morning I logged into the EA app without any problems, but in the evening an error appeared about the service being restricted. I gave my account details to my friend who lives in Lviv, and he got access to the program without any problems,» wrote one of the Ukrainian players
He added that he was only able to access the EA launcher using a VPN. In the comments to his post, other players from Zaporizhzhia confirmed that they had the same problem. Some noted that the EA app did not work for them even with a VPN.
Players suggest that access to Electronic Arts services is limited due to sanctions imposed on Russia and temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine due to a full-scale Russian invasion. They call on the company to better distinguish between regions under Ukrainian control and point out that the Russian Federation has never controlled the city of Zaporizhia.
UPD. The Electronic Arts community manager responded to Ukrainian players' messages about the blocking and confirmed that the restrictions cover Zaporizhia and Kherson.
«Please note that residents of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions are subject to the embargo listed on our support page: “ Why are EA games unavailable in some countries or regions? «,» an EA representative noted.
The page referenced by the company’s community manager states that EA «must comply with certain embargoes, sanctions, or laws,» so its games may sometimes be unavailable in some regions.
«We understand that this may be frustrating for players residing in such regions. If embargoes, sanctions, or laws are changed to allow your region to access our library, we will make every effort to provide you with access as quickly as possible,» the company explains.
This page states that «selling new game content» may not be available in:
In response to the explanation of the EA representative, Ukrainian players once again pointed out that the cities of Kherson and Zaporizhia are not under occupation and advised to check the map.
It was previously reported that Ukrainian gamers playing on PlayStation consoles may not be able to wait for the 007 First Light game about the young James Bond. Studio IO Interactive has removed its games from sale in Russia, Belarus and some temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine, but it seems that the PlayStation Store is not making exceptions for Ukrainians from other regions.
dev.ua contacted IO Interactive for clarification of the situation. According to a company representative, this is a consequence of compliance with international sanctions on certain territories:
