EA Games and Origin banned the whole country because of US sanctions

Imagine that you spent tens of dollars on games in Origin or Steam. And then one day we went to the client - and found that access was blocked. All your games are gone. No refund. Just because of certain political sanctions of one country against another, which in no way concern you. It would seem do not concern.

It was such a sad story that happened to gamers from the state of Myanmar in Southeast Asia (population 55.2 million people). The American company EA Sports decided to block users from this country in the online game service Origin.

Messages about blocking complaints appeared on the user support forum in September 2016. One of the users says that in the previous version of the Origin everything worked fine, and in the new access is blocked. It happened around mid-September. Another could not enter the site through the site of his stationary provider, neither through the official client, nor through the browser. But through the mobile operator I went without any problems. Ping to the server does not show a connectivity violation.
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In response to complaints, an EA Sports representative on the forum confirmed the block. He said that in accordance with US laws, some countries are not allowed access to Origin's gaming platform. The measure is implemented with the update of the program Origin 10. Myanmar is one of the countries in respect of which sanctions apply. “Unfortunately, we can’t do anything to give you back access,” the forum moderator said on behalf of EA Sports.

The moderator could not tell in which other countries access to Origin is blocked. He said that for each country, you need to ask the leadership separately.

A brief trial on Reddit revealed that blocking users from Myanmar is still ongoing (October 30, 2016).

It is completely unclear how ordinary gaming platforms are related to politics. US sanctions are imposed against specific people and groups, as well as financial institutions, but not against ordinary citizens. Those are victims of the political situation in the country, and the United States is trying to help ordinary citizens with its sanctions against the leadership of the country. So the actions of EA Sports are completely out of place here. The same Steam and GOG.com continue to work as if nothing had happened. The catalogs of the App Store and Google Play applications are quietly accessible like all other content distribution services on the Internet.

The United States, European Union and Canada imposed economic sanctions against Myanmar in 1993–2007: The United States banned arms trafficking in 1993, prohibited investment in 1997 (except for the current investment project of the Chevron oil company), and in 2003 prohibited the import of any goods from Myanmar except tick and gems. In the same year, financial transactions with residents of Myanmar were restricted.

On October 7, 2016, the United States officially lifted certain sanctions against Myanmar, although some financial restrictions seem to have remained . Interestingly, the imminent lifting of sanctions was announced in advance: in early September. Then access to the Origin for users from Myanmar was free, but soon it was closed.

There is a version that blocking of Origin may be associated with a ban on the import of cryptographic tools - Myanmar imposed this sanction on itself . Serious restrictions on the import of cryptography exist in nine countries of the world (the red flag is a complete ban): these are Iraq, North Korea, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Russia, Belarus and Brunei. If the problem is in the import of cryptography, then due to the use of DRM, the Origin platform may block access to users from these countries.

Ordinary gamers from Myanmar now have to understand these legal and economic issues from the sphere of big politics in order to understand why they lost access to their favorite toys? EA Sports is not even going to compensate for the costs incurred. She says she just obeys the law.

On the Reddit forum, one user complains that he bought about 20 games on Origin and spent several hundred dollars. He considers the excuses of EA Sports unsatisfactory, because other content platforms do not block local users, only Origin. After the cancellation of the sanctions on October 7, no changes occurred: access is still blocked.

At the same time, access is blocked even for users who have opened an account from another country and bought games before they moved to Myanmar. They can enter the site via VPN, but ping online is reduced from 100 ms to 350+ ms, so it's almost impossible to play.

The victims urge to obstruct the company EA Sports, which follows the letter of the law too vigorously and blocks whole countries. In protest, they urge to abandon the purchase of games on the Origin platform.

And most importantly, blocking an entire country in such a service should not be done quietly, as EA Sports did. This is not the case that users are forced to find out on the forum why access to the service is blocked. Such decisions should be made openly. It is advisable to announce them in advance so that people do not spend money on games that they will not be able to play tomorrow.

On Reddit, they noticed that such a delusional problem is typical for EA, which for two years in a row was recognized as the worst company in America (according to Consumerist magazine).

Apparently, the blocking of Origin for Myanmar is one of the first cases when the gaming platform denies access to the inhabitants of the whole country. Hopefully, the company will soon correct its mistake. Depriving ordinary people of computer games is truly inhuman.