The news that the Vietnamese government has returned to Steam has been reported in various media in Japan and overseas.
Steam is the world’s largest PC game platform, and is a popular service with an increasing number of users in Japan. Core gamers in Vietnam also use Steam, and it seems that the latest report on Steam regulations has been taken as a surprise even by Vietnamese gamers.
I actually checked with the staff in Hanoi, Vietnam, and they told me that there have been reports of restrictions on Steam locally as well, and that while I can certainly log in to Steam, I can no longer make new purchases. That was it.
However, it is not yet clear whether all users are uniformly regulated, and there has been no official announcement from Steam, so it is unclear how things will change in the future.
By the way, when I gifted a game to a Vietnamese user from my Steam account in Japan using the Steam function, it seems that the game was received normally, so it seems that not everything on Steam is blocked.
So, if this regulation continues in the future, what kind of impact will it have?
Vietnam is experiencing remarkable economic development, and the number of PC game users is also increasing. However, most of Vietnam’s game market is still the smartphone game market, and the PC game market is not large. As a result, Steam may not see an urgent need to respond.
Regarding the circumstances on the Vietnamese side, in Vietnam, in order to conduct a game distribution business, a license issued by the government is required. However, overseas games are distributed through platforms such as Steam without a Vietnamese license, and the Vietnamese government may have been concerned about this situation.
Popular PC games in Vietnam include League of Legends, but this is distributed through a Vietnamese distribution company that owns a Vietnamese license, and the Vietnamese government may want to enforce this format. . This is understandable from a tax revenue perspective.
According to various reports, the Vietnamese government has decided to impose restrictions because it is unable to contact Steam, but if the reason behind this is “stricter licensing operations in Vietnam,” it is assumed that the App Store and Google Play will There may also be some regulations.
China has similar regulations, but in China users end up accessing Steam through a VPN (virtual private network), and it is possible that Vietnam will follow suit.
Although Vietnam is a socialist country like China, the Internet is almost as open as Japan, and you can use LINE, Google, X (Twitter), etc., which are restricted in China. However, adult sites are blocked and there is no firewall.
I hope that this firewall will not affect games in general in the future, but first I would like to hope that the dialogue between Steam and the Vietnamese government goes well.
コメントを残す