Indonesians ended last week with quite the shock, and not in a good way, when some of the most used online service providers got blocked by their Communications Ministry (Kominfo). Among them included video game storefront and launcher Steam, because parent company failed to register with Kominfo before the extended deadline. The good news for Steam users in the country is that Valve has now complied with the new regulation, returning access to games like CS:GO and Dota 2.
Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad posted a tweet to that effect, but notes that Epic Games and EA have yet to do the same. Which means that the Epic Games Store and Origin remain unusable in Indonesia. There have also been no official confirmation yet as to when the two companies intend to register themselves with Kominfo.
The good news is that Valve has registered with Kominfo and Steam is now officially unblocked and accessible in Indonesia.
However, Epic Games Store / Services and EA's Origin still remained blocked and there is no official confirmation on whether they plan to register yet. https://t.co/0BwK16Hpzl
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 2, 2022
In addition to Steam, Yahoo is another company that has regained access to the Indonesian market. Also made accessible is PayPal, but that may have something to do with giving time for Indonesians to migrate their funds to other financial platforms or services. That being said, Indonesian news outlet Antara News quotes Kominfo spokesperson Dedy Permadi as saying that “PayPal has conveyed its commitment to register in the near future”.
At the very least, gamers in the country now have access to Steam games. Unfortunately for gamers on other platforms, things still look to be grim, though VPN use remains as a method of circumventing the block. Previously, IGN reported that services by other video game companies, including Blizzard, Ubisoft and Nintendo, were also blocked by Kominfo for their failure to register their services in time.
Halo SobatKom!
Berikut ini update status terkini mengenai Pendaftaran Penyelenggara Sistem Elektronik (PSE) pada beberapa PSE Lingkup Privat meliputi PayPal, Valve Corp, dan Yahoo.#BersamaKominfo #KitaMakinTahu #PSE pic.twitter.com/h6formwHsR— Kementerian Kominfo (@kemkominfo) August 2, 2022
Like Epic Games and EA, there is no sign of these companies registering with Kominfo to have their services reinstated in Indonesia for now, though chances are this will change in time, After all, the country has the fourth largest population in the world, which is a big market that these companies are cutting themselves out of by not registering.
(Source: Daniel Ahmad, Kominfo, Antara News via The Verge)
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