Remember how Sony sneakily added a PSN account requirement to Helldivers 2 after launch, thereby making it unplayable in the long list countries PSN still hasn't been rolled out to? And then Sony region-restricted a bunch of PC ports in those same countries, like God of War Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, Ghost of Tsushima, and The Last of Us 2 Remastered? And then remember how people complained so much that was all undone?
Apparently Sony forgot the last step, because upcoming tag fighter Marvel Tōkon has been region-restricted on Steam in 132 countries that don't have access to PSN.
I say that was all undone, but for some reason Until Dawn remains region-restricted. Fortunately, nobody cares about Until Dawn. Marvel Tōkon, on the other hand, has excited a bunch of players, and obviously appeals to the global fighting game community in countries where the genre's particularly big like Pakistan. Wouldn't you know it, Pakistan is on the region-restricted list. So is the Dominican Republic, Morocco, Egypt, Fiji, Jamaica, Monaco, and Vatican City, where I guess they'll just have to keep playing Baldur's Gate 3.
Rack up another loss for Sony, fresh off PR disasters like its retreat from physical sales, the U-turn on singleplayer games coming to PC, and doubling down on AI, which it thinks can "unleash the creativity of studios and further enhance the PlayStation experience."
If you do live in one of the countries where it'll be available, Marvel Tōkon is having an open beta on PC and PS5 that runs from July 24 to July 26. This beta will let you play Blade, who was recently revealed as a member of the same tag team as Ghost Rider, Loki, and for some reason Deadpool. Which is a shame if you're a fan of the spooky side of Marvel, but not the "lol so random" side. Was Nico Minoru busy washing her hair, or what?
