Although Sony withdrew its games from Russian and Belarusian Steam, thanks to third-party platforms, residents of these regions continued to enjoy former PlayStation exclusives on Valve's service. All good things, however, must come to an end sooner or later.
Image source: ResetEra (Hispanicguy)
Online stores selling keys for Steam, including the service of the publishing house Buka, report that Sony Interactive Entertainment has recently introduced new restrictions for Russian and Belarusian accounts.
As it became known, users from Russia and the Republic of Belarus will no longer be able to activate games on Steam released by Sony Interactive Entertainment (under its PlayStation PC label).
Image source: Buka
The restriction applies to both Sony games that are still preparing for release on Steam, such as Helldivers 2 (February 8), Horizon Forbidden West (March 21) or Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (not yet confirmed), as well as those that have already been released.
Trading platforms have already made appropriate notes in the product descriptions. The Steam version of Horizon Forbidden West, sold at Buka for 4,799 rubles, can be activated in the CIS countries, not counting the Russian Federation and Belarus.
Image source: ResetEra (raidergale)
It is worth noting that Sony Interactive Entertainment is not the first Steam publisher to limit the activation of its games in the Russian Federation and Belarus. Warner Bros. has done this in the past.. Games (Hogwarts Legacy, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League).
Against the backdrop of tightening restrictions, the gray market for video games in Russia continues to grow: according to XYZ School, of the 161 billion rubles spent by Russian gamers in 2023, about 55 billion (24%) went through intermediaries.