PS4 online multiplayer blocked in countries without a store.

[Andy Shandy]

To those of you in Bahrain, Lebanon, Romania, Oman, Slovakia, Malta, Cyprus and Iceland (and perhaps some other places) I'm afraid I have some bad news for you.

According to Fred Dutton, a Sony employee, countries without a PS store will also not be able to play online either. In response to a question on today's PS Plus Update for July [http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2013/06/19/playstation-plus-your-july-update/comment-page-2/#comments], Dutton answered

Unfortunately at this time gamers in countries which do not have a Store cannot access online multi-player features. However, we are considering every measure to offer PlayStation Store services to these territories as soon as possible. To clarify, the affected territories are: Bahrain, Lebanon, Romania, Oman, Slovakia, Malta, Cyprus and Iceland.

This may be down to the decision by Sony, much like Microsoft has had for some time now, that you now have to pay for online multiplayer.

What also should be noted is that since this was EU-specific, this may well affect other countries as well. However, they should still be able to play single player games on the PS4.

While this definitely isn't as bad as the Xbox One's area limitations, I'm still interested to see people's opinions on this - especially from anyone in those countries affected. Parts of Europe do really seem to be getting fucked over this upcoming generation.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

What the hell, people? I'm pretty sure those countries have internet like the rest of the world, so what is going on there? Is it a legal thing, where a digital store is not allowed or something?

 

[ronald1840]

I'm sorry for those in the affected countries.

I want to ask the OP a question and I'm not attacking you. Did you start this topic just to knock Sony after all the Xbox One hate because you think the PS4's getting too much praise? I ask this because I don't see how this starts a discussion. Some countries have restrictions on the system that is unfortunate. I'm sure people on here in those countries will moan and complain about the PS4 and that'll just cause back-and-forth for yet another pointless debate on which console is better.

Point I'm trying to make is this. It happened. It sucks. Nothing's perfect. Move on. Let's get past this without any arguments and complaints because it won't get anyone anything here but banned if things get serious. This looks like bait for another Xbox One vs. PS4 topic, and maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

At least they'll be able to use the console.

This is the reality of the world. It's not an always connected world yet. And it won't be for at least another 10-20 years. That's why it's a stupid idea to make an always-on console.

 

[Korten12]

But wait- couldn't they just sign up for another countries store? Kind of how you can sign up for a JP PSN and still log into it?

 

[PedalTank]

Granted not being able to play online sucks but at least they can play games on the thing. Sucks but all in all a non-issue.

 

[Andy Shandy]

I want to ask the OP a question and I'm not attacking you. Did you start this topic just to knock Sony after all the Xbox One hate because you think the PS4's getting too much praise? I ask this because I don't see how this starts a discussion. Some countries have restrictions on the system that is unfortunate. I'm sure people on here in those countries will moan and complain about the PS4 and that'll just cause back-and-forth for yet another pointless debate on which console is better.

Oh no, I don't mean for it to be an attack on Sony. I created it mainly for just informing people about it, especially for anyone that happens to live in those countries, and would therefore be affected by that.

Trust me, I'm not attempting to make the Xbox One look better =P

 

[krazykidd]

It's just online multiplayer . It's not that big of a deal , you can still play offline and local muliplayer . When did online multiplayer become such a big thing ? Hell when did being able to go online ( or in microsofts case need to always be online ) on a console become such a big deal?

Anyways i hope it's because their online ( in those countries ) is wonky and not because sony is being a dick . However i do wonder , would allowing EVERY country go online cost more money to sony ( or microsoft )? If so , then maybe it's a supply / demande kind of deal , in that case it's understandable . It MAY not be worth it in that case . But at least they can still buy and play the console * stares at microsoft*.

 

[nevarran]

Another console crap. Gotta love how for the one side such things are considered preposterous, for the other they're OK.

When did online multiplayer become such a big thing ? Hell when did being able to go online ( or in microsofts case need to always be online ) on a console become such a big deal?

When 90% of the devs started talking about muliplayer, online integration, co-op, cloud gaming, social features...

 

[spartandude]

Oh for the love of god, at the very least they can still play off line games but still...

 

[masticina]

Well you have to be able to give in your code. And right now that seems connected to the shop.

I guess if they disconnect the PS4 Online code activation from the actual shop it will run just fine.

 

[BrotherRool]

Is it a matter of legal issues? I'm pretty sure the reason the Xbox One isn't coming to a lot of countries is because of legal issues, so I guess I'm jumping to the same inference with this. Its hard to see how it could be a legal matter though, from my perspective anyways.

If its not a legal matter, and its the other most-likely reason, cost-efficiency, then it may change if demand rises. They're relatively small nations with development not on par with western Europe or North America, so I wouldn't be surprised if that were the reason.

Its not good, but hey, its not like they're trying to screw those people over intentionally, like the Xbone is.

With the Xbone I'm pretty sure it was a cost efficiency thing, they were intending to concentrate their resources on launch on the most 'significant' countries, because if it were a legal thing that wouldn't explain the staged roll-out they've got planned in tiers of countries in 2014. Most of the markets they aren't releasing in have exceptionally poor 360 sales now (Japan being the big example of that)

This one might be a legal thing though because it's specifically the online store that isn't available in those countries. All of them are pretty fiddly countries and it's possible that they've got some very specific trade laws. (They're also very small countries though so it might be a server issue or something instead)

To those of you in Bahrain, Lebanon, Romania, Oman, Slovakia, Malta, Cyprus and Iceland (and perhaps some other places) I'm afraid I have some bad news for you.
------------
This may be down to the decision by Sony, much like Microsoft has had for some time now, that you now have to pay for online multiplayer.

What also should be noted is that since this was EU-specific, this may well affect other countries as well. However, they should still be able to play single player games on the PS4.

I believe Sony lumps some of 'rest of the world' into their european accounting (which would explain why Bahrain, Lebanon and Oman are on that list despite being in the Middle East and not part of Europe never mind the EU). There might be South American/African/Asian countries though, I'm not sure which part of the world those get lumped into

 

[doomed89]

It's just online multiplayer . It's not that big of a deal , you can still play offline and local muliplayer . When did online multiplayer become such a big thing ? Hell when did being able to go online ( or in microsofts case need to always be online ) on a console become such a big deal?

Anyways i hope it's because their online ( in those countries ) is wonky and not because sony is being a dick . However i do wonder , would allowing EVERY country go online cost more money to sony ( or microsoft )? If so , then maybe it's a supply / demande kind of deal , in that case it's understandable . It MAY not be worth it in that case . But at least they can still buy and play the console * stares at microsoft*.

You know that's a really good point, I never really thought about it but this gen is the first one with decent online yet all of a sudden we are running towards always on, aside from being MSes wet dream it doesn't make sense. Online isn't as big of a deal as people think and it's alot newer then people think too at least for consoles but either way it seems like Sony is trying to resolve the issue.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Couldn't they circumvent that by making an American/European account? Or is that ability too going the way of the dodo come next gen?

 

[Jamash]

Is it a matter of legal issues? I'm pretty sure the reason the Xbox One isn't coming to a lot of countries is because of legal issues, so I guess I'm jumping to the same inference with this. Its hard to see how it could be a legal matter though, from my perspective anyways.

If its not a legal matter, and its the other most-likely reason, cost-efficiency, then it may change if demand rises. They're relatively small nations with development not on par with western Europe or North America, so I wouldn't be surprised if that were the reason.

Its not good, but hey, its not like they're trying to screw those people over intentionally, like the Xbone is.

With the Xbone I'm pretty sure it was a cost efficiency thing, they were intending to concentrate their resources on launch on the most 'significant' countries, because if it were a legal thing that wouldn't explain the staged roll-out they've got planned in tiers of countries in 2014. Most of the markets they aren't releasing in have exceptionally poor 360 sales now (Japan being the big example of that)

I think the biggest factor in the Xbox One's limited selection of supported countries at launch is a language thing (which affects cost efficiency).

Due to the Kinect voice commands, the Kinect software will have to be localised and programmed to recognise for every language, accent and dialect in those countries.

Localisation is a very time consuming task, even when it's just translating Japanese text into English, so to program the Kinect software to recognise other languages, accents and dialect must be monumental.

I suppose Microsoft could have avoid this by forcing people in unsupported countries to speak perfect English, French, German, or Spanish (or another supported language) without any kind of accent from their native tongue (even when it's the same language, like Congolese French vs French French), but that could have proved unpopular because it reeks of Colonialism and would basically end up with the Xbox One telling people their language isn't good enough (like an arsehole pretending they can't understand a Polish person who is speaking very good English but with an accent).

I even think the Kinect will have trouble in Britain with the multitude of different accents and dialects, for example in Scotland where the Scottish accent is notoriously difficult for voice recognition machines to understand.

Spoiler: This is essentially what the Xbox One launch day will be like in Scotland (and other parts of Britain)

 

[Morsomk_v1legacy]

I noticed that Iceland was on that list, yet again it feels like the gaming world is not giving a crap about the rock. Ohh well, atleast pc gaming isnt as stu....ohh wait.

 

[spartandude]

Oh for fuck sake Sony, did the microsoft debacle teach you nothing.... oh wait this isnt getting the same publicity