EA Games and Origin quietly bans an entire country - or, why you shouldn't take digital distribution for granted.

[paddy-stone]

1 minute ago, Centurius said:

AACS 2.0, which is used on 4K blu-rays, uses decryption via the internet and it is as of yet(nearly a year now) uncracked.

Ahh cool, thanks for the info on that.... will have to read up a bit looks like

[KuJoe]

How about we wait for whole story before jumping to conclusions?

 

Put the pitchforks away before you poke your eye out over something you heard from one person on reddit.

[gamerking]

31 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

How about we wait for whole story before jumping to conclusions?

 

Put the pitchforks away before you poke your eye out over something you heard from one person on reddit.

no poke EA eyes out, we need a witch hunt emoji or pitchfork

[AresKrieger]

Myanmar is a very problematic country so I wouldnt be surprised if sanctions were the reason behind this, also reddit is often wrong about things so add some salt to the info they give other than the main point.

[typographie]

3 hours ago, Castdeath97 said:

Well here what EA_Alex (he is a EA/Origin representative on reddit) says about it:

It seems incredibly strange to me that EA_Alex didn't say, "Nope, no more Origin in Myanmar, sorry." if that was really what was going on here. In fact it seems incredibly strange to me that EA wouldn't make an official post or press release about this somewhere, especially if it was a matter outside of their control such as international sanctions or censorship by Myanmar's government.

 

Further it seems like the only person actually claiming Origin is now completely blocked in Myanmar appears to be a community moderator on the EA forums who doesn't appear to work for or to speak officially on EA's behalf.

[Sidiox]

THIS is exactly why I've always defended piracy and will always do so.

[sgtcool]

I think i read that the country was under sanctions, and under a military dictatorship , but is now "democratic".

[Xanthe_2871]

12 hours ago, AresKrieger said:

Myanmar is a very problematic country so I would be surprised if sanctions were the reason behind this, also reddit is often wrong about things so add some salt to the info they give other than the main point.

Interesting reasoning, but are other companies doing the same thing? 

[ImBleu]

This concerns me as someone with ~$2000 invested in Steam/Origin/uPlay accounts. While I doubt I'm getting a sanction against my country, I also foresee the possibility of one of these services "shutting down" or any incident where they take away games / software. 

[Dabombinable]

"suddenly becomes glad that he's moving to a place with internet good enough for VPN torrenting+multiplayer"

 

Before anyone bitches, either way when I buy game, I'll be having a copy one way or another that I can't suddenly lose access to due to arbitrary bullshit.

[Orangeator]

46 minutes ago, ThatCoolBlueKidd said:

This concerns me as someone with ~$2000 invested in Steam/Origin/uPlay accounts. While I doubt I'm getting a sanction against my country, I also foresee the possibility of one of these services "shutting down" or any incident where they take away games / software. 

Same, I have purchased many PC games from services like Steam and Origin. Although I live in the United States, so... The worry is a little less.

[Prysin]

seems like a storm in a glass of water. There is probably a valid and reasonable explanation for this. Although why it was not announced to the public, and Origin users in the least, a long time ahead is strange. 

[shymi]

That's scary, really, really scary. I don't mean the part about the blocking, but the "we don't know if and when the services will be restored".

[Praesi]

15 hours ago, Sidiox said:

THIS is exactly why I've always defended piracy and will always do so.

THIS is just a pile of  horseshit.

[Praesi]

1 hour ago, shymi said:

That's scary, really, really scary. I don't mean the part about the blocking, but the "we don't know if and when the services will be restored".

Hillary Clinton as President is realy realy scary.

[IAEInferno]

2 minutes ago, Praesi said:

Hillary Clinton as President is realy realy scary.

Hitler as president then.

[Okjoek]

Sounds pretty shitty to me.

[IAEInferno]

10 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

Sounds pretty shitty to me.

Well if you bothered searching then it probably won't sound as shitty as you say.

 

 

http://www.itechpost.com/articles/48464/20161031/ea-bans-myanmar-from-accessing-origin-no-warnings-issued.htm

 

http://www.pcgamesn.com/battlefield-1/ea-origin-myanmar-trade-sanctions

 

https://techraptor.net/content/ea-ban-myanmar-origin

 

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/news/ea-bans-pc-gamers-in-myanmar-from-accessing-origin-report-1586743

[IAEInferno]

4 hours ago, Praesi said:

THIS is just a pile of  horseshit.

Hitler would agree with you.

[typographie]

On 10/30/2016 at 9:21 PM, sgtcool said:

I think i read that the country was under sanctions, and under a military dictatorship , but is now "democratic".

Myanmar is governed by a military dictatorship that has been pretty repressive for a long time. But they have liberalized a bit and there have been a number of positive steps toward reform in the last few years, though I'm not sure where they stand right now. I don't think they're quite to the point where we can say they're a democracy, but President Obama did make a public visit, and we've eased sanctions a bit.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011–15_Myanmar_political_reforms