Sony Blocks Marvel Rivals in 132 Countries on PC
▼ Summary
– Sony blocked the PC release of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls in 132 countries because PSN is not supported there.
– PS5 players in unsupported regions can bypass restrictions by creating a PSN account from another country, though this violates terms of service.
– On Steam, the game is unavailable in unsupported countries, and using a VPN to access it risks account bans.
– Previous Sony PC games like Stellar Blade faced similar issues, but developer Shift Up successfully pressured Sony to reverse the restriction.
– Sony owns the Marvel Tokon franchise, making it harder for developer ArcSys to negotiate a change compared to Shift Up’s situation.
Sony is having a rough stretch, and the bad news keeps piling up.
This weekend, fans of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls voiced frustration after discovering that the Japanese publisher has blocked the PC version of the fighting game in a staggering 132 countries.
The root cause is an old and familiar problem. PlayStation Network (PSN) is officially supported in only a limited number of regions, and because a PSN account is mandatory to play the ArcSys-developed title, players in unsupported nations are simply locked out.
On the PS5, users from restricted regions have historically found a workaround by creating an account based in a supported country. While this technically violates the terms of service, it has long been considered a grey-area loophole on consoles, accepted by many since PSN first launched.
That workaround doesn’t exist on PC platforms like Steam. There, the game is outright unavailable for purchase in unsupported countries, and attempting to use a VPN can lead directly to a permanent account ban.
This isn’t a new issue for Sony’s PC releases. Stellar Blade faced similar restrictions, though developer Shift Up managed to convince the publisher to reverse course. However, Shift Up owned the intellectual property, giving it more leverage in negotiations. ArcSys, by contrast, is the developer of Marvel Tokon, but Sony holds the rights to the franchise.
So can this be fixed? It’s possible. Sony has loosened its PSN requirements on certain titles before. But given that Marvel Tokon relies heavily on online multiplayer, the game may end up as another casualty of PlayStation’s aging and inflexible online infrastructure.
This situation serves as yet another reminder of Sony’s current missteps. The company may be pulling back from PC, but it still wants to sell as many copies of its live service games as possible. Blocking over a hundred countries from even buying the game is hard to justify.
(Source: Push Square)
