Malaysia Have Banned All of Steam Because of Fight of Gods
You read that right. Following on from Malaysia’s MCMC’s call for Fight of Gods to be disabled for purchase in their country “within 24 hours”, Steam’s store has now been blocked entirely in Malaysia. I guess nobody at Valve could turn the Fight of Gods pipe off to their country.
The latest DUMB thing Malaysia has done on the world stage: BLOCKED STEAM for that fight of fight of gods game! https://t.co/kuWljM3p9r pic.twitter.com/WSYB2Fqg1H
— Iain McNally (@McNastyPrime) September 8, 2017
What the fuck steam malaysia?? @steam_games pic.twitter.com/Jl9YWaPQpX
— hafiz rosli (@pis_a) September 8, 2017
The MCMC previously stated they were reaching out to the platform holder, in this case Valve who operates Steam, in order to disable purchases to Malaysia. I guess this hasn’t happened yet, and they have decided it’s important enough for them to block Steam entirely in their country. This affects their population of over 30 million people. It should be noted this is a DNS block on the store, and it looks like people can still play games.
Presumably once Malaysia have been assured that Fight of Gods will no longer be available to buy in their country. Only time will tell if other countries will follow suit.
Here is a statement from the game’s publishers, PQube, about the situation:
Fight of Gods is a video game that takes a humorous approach to religion in the same way that other entertainment formats have – across television, film, books and theatre.
The game is not promoting any religious agenda and is not designed to offend and the description of the game on the digital platforms through which it is distributed provide clear guidance on the nature of the game and its content so that people can freely choose whether or not to play it. We respect fully the choice of those who would not wish to play it.
We are disappointed that such freedom of choice is not given to everyone and in particular that the game has been forcibly removed from sale in Malaysia although no direct communication has been received by us as to the reasons for this. Nevertheless we respect any rules and censorship imposed in any given territory.
Meanwhile, Fight of Gods is enjoying quite a lot of success and love among the online fighting gaming community. There’s actually a fantastic article on Kotaku’s Compete website that explains the joy of a community banding together over a rough around the edges indie Early Access game. It’s well worth a read and really digs into what can be so great about the fighting game community.
In the meantime, hopefully everyone who wanted the game in Malaysia already bought it!
