this post was submitted on 04 May 2024
873 points (99.1% liked)

Steam

14528 readers
185 users here now

Steam is a video game digital distribution service by Valve.

Steam News | Steam Beta Client news

Useful tools:
SteamDB
SteamCharts
Issue tracker for Linux version of Steam

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The censored one is probably Niger

UPDATE - special thanks to @dditty@lemm.ee for making a map showing the countries without access to PSN:

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 230 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I want to live in ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️.

[–] lqdrchrd@lemmy.blahaj.zone 91 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Looks like they censored the country Niger in their own post.

[–] Albbi@lemmy.ca 143 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Steam censored it for them. Nobody would go and use hearts if they were to self censor. They'd use ****ing asterisks.

[–] Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website 33 points 2 years ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Jerkface@lemmy.world 23 points 2 years ago (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 2 years ago

Niger is a known intentional misspelling of the n-word used to circumvent censorship. So this is an evolution of the Scunthorp problem.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] pro_grammer@programming.dev 32 points 2 years ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] TSG_Asmodeus@lemmy.world 123 points 2 years ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 102 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Poor Niger can't be mentioned on Steam apparently.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 102 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (13 children)

Oh man, even all the small European ones are fucked. Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco. Hilarious!

Wait, Luxembourg is not on this list? Wow.

[–] Jomn@jlai.lu 43 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'm more surprised with the three baltic states

[–] magikmw@lemm.ee 31 points 2 years ago

Sony still salty about USSR dissolution

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (12 replies)
[–] Nobody@lemmy.world 88 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Countries whose exchange rate likely made the game even more expensive, and you’ve taken it from them just to dox PC gamers on the PlayStation network.

This isn’t even enshittification. It’s outright fraud.

[–] huginn@feddit.it 44 points 2 years ago (14 children)

The silver lining: steam's refund policy is good enough that most of them will get their money back. Hopefully that's painful to Sony.

load more comments (14 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] umbraroze@lemmy.world 74 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'm in Finland and peering toward Estonia and wondering what the heck did they do to annoy Sony so much that you can't make a PSN account there.

My instant guess would be that Estonians are in possession of a Sony tape deck from the 1980s that still works (being a Sony product from the 1980s), and Sony is like "No! We refuse to do business there until they join the modern time planned obsolescence club."

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] mlg@lemmy.world 69 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Wasn't Valve the one who pointed out that Russia was always pirating games not because they were inherently pirates but because the game releases had zero support for Russia lol. Hence why Valve was the first foreign developer/publisher that gained an actual foothold in the Russian market.

This is kind of like the same thing. Sony will just say something dumb like "we don't allow PSN accounts in these countries because they're full of pirates".

[–] snowadv@lemm.ee 28 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

The second problem is absence of regional prices in other markets but Steam.

They are selling games two (!!) or so times cheaper in RU region. For example, AAA game might cost 60 dollars or 6000 rub in US but it will costs 35 or 3500 rub in russian steam.

Even though I couldn't afford games in the past and pirated them - at some point I started buying stuff just because it gives much better, hustle -free experience.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] KISSmyOSFeddit@lemmy.world 64 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Only playable in countries with DEMOCRACY!!! HELL YEAH!!!

[–] Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz 29 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Like undemocratic Republic of Estonia.

Edit: oh Latvia and Lithuanian is also on the list, has Sony taken the country list before collapse of USSR.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] dditty@lemm.ee 59 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (26 children)

Now if only I could see this on a map

Edit: I made a map

load more comments (26 replies)
[–] spirinolas@lemmy.world 50 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Isn't this illegal according to EU law? It's a common market but the Baltic states are excluded.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 42 points 2 years ago (3 children)

"Niger" is a swear according to valve?

[–] fluckx@lemmy.world 58 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Because it closely resembles a slur. Its one of those false positives. But the tool that replaces it likely isn't context aware.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 51 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Nigeria please that is a stupid rule

[–] swayevenly@lemm.ee 27 points 2 years ago (7 children)

I'm ghana have to ask you to calm down.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago (17 children)

I’m not a big gamer so I’m not entirely getting this. It sounds like the issue is they want you to link your steam and PSN accounts, which people don’t want to do. And in some countries it’s even a TOS violation.

My question is, why would they have such a requirement to link the two accounts in the first place?

load more comments (17 replies)
[–] Got_Bent@lemmy.world 26 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I don't know what a PSN account is, but I'm surprised you can get one in North Korea.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] irmoz@reddthat.com 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Why can't these countries get accounts? And what was the controversy?

[–] TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works 47 points 2 years ago

Game is locked to PSN account system now so if you live somewhere with no PSN support, tough shit

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 21 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Sweet they let the DPRK join in

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 21 points 2 years ago (3 children)

So where is 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍?

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Someone didn’t realize Niger isn’t an offensive word.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›