Gaming business giants have been fined EUR 7.8 million for geo-blocking games

 The European Commission acts for the good of gamers The European Union, more specifically the European Commission has opened criminal proceedings for the practice of geo-blocking game purchases against 6 well-known game developers, so-called industry giants.

Geo-blocking is only known to be the binding of Steam game keys to a specific nation or territory, which will make it difficult to trigger the game in another country by buying the key. As the EU is committed to the Digital Single Market, irrespective of the country where anyone is based, it was agreed that a fine of EUR 7.8 million must be charged by publishers who opposed the activity.

Valve received a fine of 1.6 million, which still did not wish to collaborate with the European Commission during the investigation, Capcom received a fine of 15 percent smaller for cooperation and would pay about EUR 400,000, the highest is Focus Home Interactive, which, after a cut of 10 percent, paid EUR 2.8 million. Bandai Namco, Koch Media, and ZeniMax Media, the majority of the fined publishers, have won a 10 percent cut in penalties and will pay EUR 340,000, 977,000, and 1.6 million, respectively.

The European Commission did not respond entirely by mistake to the geo-blocking of games, but the inquiry was launched because the number of people enjoying games is increasing rapidly, especially on Steam, which last year had 120 million active users and initially set up a new one in 2021. A record according to the number of players. Limiting anyone from interactive content only because of their location is not fair. The fined businesses would have to pay the fine to quit the former activity, and with a sad case, other publishers have learned a lesson.