Duelyst Forums

An Update on Region Blocking

#1

Hi Folks,

We, the Duelyst team at BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America, have heard your concerns regarding the region blocking in Duelyst and we would like to explain the situation to you. BANDAI NAMCO is a publisher with its own processes and publishing requirements. When our partnership with Counterplay Games began, Duelyst was naturally updated to comply with these publishing requirements as a BANDAI NAMCO title. However, we failed to fully implement and communicate these changes to you which were our responsibility.

We’ve been working hard for the last few weeks alongside Counterplay Games to make this right. First, to show our appreciation for your dedication to the Duelyst community throughout this transition, we’re offering 3 Unearthed Prophecy Orbs to all users who log in to Duelyst between August 17th at 11:00 AM PDT and August 31st at 11:00 AM PDT. We are very sorry to have caused this inconvenience.

Second, we recognize that due to an error in our initial plan to implement the region blocking, a number of users were inappropriately banned after we assumed they were violating our Terms of Service in order to access Duelyst. We have identified those users, have removed their bans so that they will be allowed to continue playing, and will be offering them an additional gift to show our appreciation for their patience. If you are among those banned users, please make sure to check your CS tickets for information about how to collect your gift. If you believe you’re among those users, but have not heard from us or had your ban lifted, please submit a support ticket and we’ll get right on it.

Third, going forward, we have taken a closer look at the reasons behind our obligations to block certain regions and will be limiting the restrictions as much as we can. What this means is that, users in some regions won’t be able to make purchases, users in other regions won’t be allowed to create new accounts, and users in a very small number of regions won’t be able to log in at all. Please note that these payment restrictions only refer to the Standalone Client and Web Client. Players playing through another platform may still be able to make purchases in Duelyst depending on that platform’s policies.

Here is the list of countries that are affected by the region blocking and how they will be affected:

Individuals from the following countries will not be able to create an account or log in to the BNEA platform:

  • Afghanistan
  • Belarus
  • Central African Republic
  • Cyprus
  • Cuba
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Eritrea
  • Haiti
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Lebanon
  • Libya
  • Macau
  • Myanmar
  • North Korea
  • Somalia
  • Sudan
  • Syria
  • Ukraine
  • Venezuela
  • Zimbabwe

We will not be accepting new accounts from the following countries:

  • China

Existing BNEA accounts based in the following countries may continue to login to the BNEA Platform, but will not be able to make payments on the BNEA Platform. Creation of new accounts will be restricted:

  • Russian Federation

Players may still create a BNEA account and login to their accounts from the following countries, but will not be able to make payments on the BNEA Platform:

  • Albania
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Burundi
  • Croatia
  • Ethiopia
  • The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
  • Montenegro
  • Serbia
  • South Sudan
  • Uganda
  • Vanuatu
  • Yemen

We are very sorry for the confusion and strife this issue has brought to the Duelyst community. At our core, BANDAI NAMCO and Counterplay Games are about creating fun and positive experiences for our customers. In this matter, we recognize that we have failed you. We will strive to do better for you, our valued community, and hope that you can accept our apology.

Sincerely,

The Duelyst Team

39 Likes
I Can't Login in the game or the bandai page
#2

How does this affect traveling to restricted regions, if at all @stormshade? With personal computers that is like I already have Duelyst installed and auto login, but if I do travel to Cuba or Iran, will it just be a Duelyst free time?

5 Likes
#3

Well, I’m content with this update. Cleared who and were is being banned, and seems some people who’ve been banned will be returning to us.
Given I’m not fussed with the ‘why’s’ of the restrictions, I’d say I’m very happy with the update.

There is still the bridge to gap from before, but I’m fairly hopeful that’s possible in future.

#4

Good to see a clear list.
Should hopefully calm people from worrying of sudden bans due to region problems.

2 Likes
#5

I’m curious why just those countries are restricted. Most of them seem to be, well, lets just say politically unorthodox.

#6

Really nice to see such a comprehensive list! Sure, it does not give any reasons why the list is the way it is, but for now, it gives pretty complete information on this whole restriction thing.

#8

obvious isn’t it, countries that are not politically US friendly - broadly speaking

:joy:

BNEA game sanctions XD

2 Likes
#9

Correct, you will not be able to play in a region that we are not allowing logins from.

Thanks,

Stormshade

1 Like
#10

Does this mean we are able to pay for Diamonds if we move out of places where payment is restricted (Russia)?

#11

It appears that it is the country, not the citizen. So if you take a vacation to Britain (for example) and login from there, I imagine you could buy diamonds.

(Or if you have a friend you trust in another country who could login for you.)

IANAL and all of that.

1 Like
#12

So it appears all popular questions have been answered then. Lovely to hear.

2 Likes
#13

Thank you @stormshade for the thread. It’s your job, but we/I can still appreciate you for doing it (never understood rude customers on customer service lines).

I have a concerned question that involves this-

The question is: Did those who purchase UP expansion in restricted areas get, or have a chance to get, their money back? To me this connects because it FEELS like orbs to players is a distraction tactic. I’m not claiming this IS the intent, nor do I want others to think that it is, but I do want to express the kind of gross feel that I get from it.

I’ll be on during this time period, but I don’t really have any intention of opening them until I know people like @alplod/@hulk12345 have been addressed.

I’m still highly unimpressed and displeased with many things of recent about all of this, but I hope we can continue discussion appropriately.

Thank you again. Peacefully,

Seraphicreaper

5 Likes
#14

Use a VPN, or just use the steam version of the game. China literally blocks everything, so I had to use a VPN for everything there :confused:

Edit: don’t use a VPN

4 Likes
#15

You’ve not been around, from what I’ve seen, but BN have stated VPN’s are against their terms of service, if I recall correctly.

#16

Huh. I guess the steam client’s the only option.

1 Like
#17

Still goes through BN. Their restrictions are law, as Duelyst now falls under their legal restrictions and publishing. No legit way to circumvent the ban, save for not being in a banned country.

2 Likes
#18

I dunno. Anyways, it should technically be okay to use a VPN if you set up the home server at your home. That way, you aren’t ‘disguising’ your IP or anything. Gray area though, get it cleared first XD

Edit: don’t use VPNs. Big no no

1 Like
#19

Just 10/10, thx for explain the situation guys!
Late its better than never, and i should buy some orbs now that this whole thing is solved :3

1 Like
#20

I thing this isnt a thing at all: majority of ppl who buy exp and get his account banned will get his ban out and keep the orbs, so… No refunds needed for them, right?

Sure the small % of the community who get totally banned (Dunno if someone is playing from, ya know, Cuba or Venezuela, since looks like the most “rich” counties of the list) should send a ticket to try to get money back, but looks hard since majority of those goverment’s countries put tons of restrictions to incoming money, since it would destabilize his internal economy -or they just dont have a stable goverment- so making buisness its impossible there.

1 Like
#21

I can’t believe Bandai Namco are seriously excluding one of the largest markets for f2p games. I hope your lawyers and biz dev guys are working round the clock to resolve this.

Signing up with a publisher should have improved duelyst’s localisation efforts.