this post was submitted on 04 May 2024
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The censored one is probably Niger

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

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[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 230 points 6 months ago (5 children)

I want to live in ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️.

[–] lqdrchrd@lemmy.blahaj.zone 91 points 6 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] Albbi@lemmy.ca 143 points 6 months 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 6 months ago (1 children)
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[–] Jerkface@lemmy.world 23 points 6 months ago (3 children)
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[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 6 months ago

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

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[–] pro_grammer@programming.dev 32 points 6 months ago (1 children)
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[–] TSG_Asmodeus@lemmy.world 123 points 6 months ago (1 children)
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[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 102 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Poor Niger can't be mentioned on Steam apparently.

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[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 102 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months 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 6 months ago (2 children)

I'm more surprised with the three baltic states

[–] magikmw@lemm.ee 31 points 6 months ago

Sony still salty about USSR dissolution

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[–] Nobody@lemmy.world 88 points 6 months 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 6 months 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.

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[–] umbraroze@lemmy.world 74 points 6 months 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."

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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 69 points 6 months 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 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months 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.

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[–] KISSmyOSFeddit@lemmy.world 64 points 6 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz 29 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months 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.

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[–] dditty@lemm.ee 59 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (26 children)

Now if only I could see this on a map

Edit: I made a map

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[–] spirinolas@lemmy.world 50 points 6 months ago (3 children)

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

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[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 42 points 6 months ago (3 children)

"Niger" is a swear according to valve?

[–] fluckx@lemmy.world 58 points 6 months 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 52 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Nigeria please that is a stupid rule

[–] swayevenly@lemm.ee 27 points 6 months ago (7 children)

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

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[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 31 points 6 months 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?

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[–] Got_Bent@lemmy.world 26 points 6 months ago (3 children)

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

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[–] irmoz@reddthat.com 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works 47 points 6 months ago

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

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 21 points 6 months ago (3 children)

So where is 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍?

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 6 months ago (2 children)

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

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[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 21 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Sweet they let the DPRK join in

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