by RapthorneSWO Region locks
The launch of the English version of Soul Worker Online had it’s fair share of issues, from server lag and crashes to experience gain problems, but now GameForge – The publisher of SWO’s English servers – have had to implement regional IP locks due to “licencing issues”.
Gameforge’s English Community manager threea states in this post on the official Soul Worker forums:
Dear SoulWorkers,
We had to change this week our stance on IP restrictions due to licensing issues. We understand that some players are disappointed but as a game publisher, we may be required to block other regions at the request of another publisher or the game’s developer. We are contractually obliged to do so.
Thus, as mentioned already, players from regions which are not under our licensing rights cannot login, register or access the shop anymore for our version of SoulWorker.
Thank you for your understanding.
The SoulWorker team
This action comes after Soul Worker Online was officially launched on Steam and through GameForge without any regional restrictions, causing many people to believe there would not be any IP blocks on the English version of the game.
What does this mean for SWO's Future?
It’s unclear how badly this will impact the game in the long run, but a cursory glance at the various online SWO communities shows a lot of anger at this move, as even native English speaking countries like Australia have been locked out. A lot of upset seems to have stemmed from the fact that Soul Worker Online’s English version launched and was available for several days to everyone before the region locks were implemented.
Gameforge have explained they had to implement the region locks due to licensing issues with other versions of the game, so GF didn’t have any choice in the matter.
For a full list of countries that can access the game still, check here
