Forward of Stellar Blade’s PC launch in June, gamers have been greeted with the dreaded but anticipated message: Some folks will not have entry to the PC launch because it’s region-locked in 130 nations.
The complete record of nations that will not have entry to Stellar Blade’s PC launch might be discovered on SteamDB, with six nations—Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Philippines, Russian Federation, and Vietnam—having no worth set. Whereas all the opposite nations outright stop the sport from being activated or bought.
The record additionally contains three Unknown nation codes: AN, FX, and XD. AN stands for the Netherlands Antilles, however Dutch gamers can merely use their NL accounts to buy the sport. Whereas FX represents Metropolitan France and XD is for Dubai, however once more, gamers can simply use their French accounts or UAE accounts, respectively.
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This record of nations strains up with PSN availability regardless of the builders’ Shift Up beforehand saying in a social media submit that “PSN connecting is completely optionally available and by no means required.”
However this would not be the primary time {that a} recreation is restricted by PSN regardless of not really requiring its use. Earlier this yr, PlayStation added a PSN restriction to Horizon Forbidden West 10 months after its launch, regardless of the sport having no web connection necessities.
🔸️We’re intently discussing the area lock challenge with the writer and are doing our BEST to resolve most of it as quickly as potential.🔸️As proven within the check chart under, the DRM has been arduous tuned to take care of the identical common body price, with even increased minimal frames in… pic.twitter.com/JDimvKiKteMay 16, 2025
PSN necessities are fairly controversial among the many gaming group. It correctly kicked off again when Sony compelled it on Helldivers 2, and in response, gamers review-bombed the sport, leaving over 200,000 adverse evaluations. Since then, Sony has tagged a PSN requirement onto all its PC releases like God of Warfare: Ragnarok, which then received review-bombed too.
For sure, it isn’t a extremely popular follow, so why will not Sony let it go? Regardless of saying that PSN accounts will probably be optionally available for gamers to make use of, this solely applies to these in nations the place PSN accounts can be found. PCG’s Harvey Randall has beforehand defined all of the the explanation why that is the case, however briefly, it is seemingly on account of trade charges. If a recreation is less expensive in a single nation than one other, there’s extra of an opportunity of key resellers profiting from the worth distinction and promoting cheaper keys on the gray market.
Whatever the causes behind it, it is nonetheless an annoying follow, and one which the builders are going to attempt to struggle in opposition to. “We’re intently discussing the area lock challenge with the writer, and we’re doing our BEST to resolve most of it as quickly as potential,” Shift Up says in a social media submit.
It seemingly took a whole lot of haggling for simply the PSN requirement to be faraway from Helldivers 2, so there isn’t any telling whether or not the Stellar Blade devs will be capable of pull this off, but it surely’s undoubtedly price a attempt.
