It's about time: Sony PlayStation finally gets rid of PC game region locks after an entire year — but some still remain

PlayStation maker and publisher Sony has made a strong effort to expand into the PC gaming market in recent years, as the firm has brought many of its first-party PlayStation Studios console exclusives to Steam months or years after their original launch on PS4 and PS5.

This initiative has proven to be very successful, though it's been hampered by Sony effectively shooting itself in the foot by region locking its games and delisting them from sale in the 170+ countries where its PlayStation Network (PSN) isn't offered — even if those games don't require the use of a PSN account in the first place. Now, though, Sony is finally walking that decision back.

On Friday afternoon, players in these territories began noticing PlayStation games appearing on their Steam client, leading to widespread speculation that Sony was lifting its region locks. This was soon confirmed by looking at data from SteamDB — a third-party site that can be used to track changes made in Steam's backend.

Indeed, in the update history for titles like Helldivers 2, God of War Ragnarök, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2, nearly all blacklisted regions have been removed. And as a result, all of these games are now available to buy in these countries again.

Sony's decision to region lock its PC releases out of all non-PSN countries came over an entire year ago after it tried to force Helldivers 2 players to make a PSN account to continue playing the game they'd already purchased. After an intense review bombing of Arrowhead's co-op shooter, Sony backpedaled and chose not to implement its PSN requirement.

However, it did delist Helldivers 2 from sale in these areas, and ever since, all other PlayStation releases on PC have been unavailable in those same territories regardless of whether or not they require PSN. Fans have continuously rallied and protested against this policy for many, many months, leading to Sony axing PSN requirements from four games in January before now finally lifting these region locks.

Something important to note, however, is that they're not entirely gone. Of the original 170+ countries blacklisted, seven still remain: Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam (Vietnam banned Steam entirely in 2024 over an issue regarding licensing games to be sold). Russia's ongoing war of aggression in Ukraine may explain why Sony still isn't selling its games there, but ultimately, the reasoning for the remaining blacklists is unknown.

Still, it's great to see Sony finally budge on this issue — even if it's one that should have been resolved a long time ago, and frankly never should have been a problem in the first place. The PlayStation publisher has faced constant and intense criticism from players, content creators, and outlets alike since the very first day regions were blocked, as nobody understood the point of the decision or how it even benefitted the firm.

Regardless, what matters most is that the company's stubbornness with this matter has come to an end, and that fans who live in the previously blacklisted regions can now enjoy PlayStation's games (widely thought to be some of the best PC games available). And for Sony, that means plenty of new sales.