All of Europe is playing Lost Ark. All of Europe? No! 2 unyielding countries inhabited by judges continue to resist the MMORPG. And right now, while Lost Ark is the hottest game on Steam.
What about Lost Ark?
- Since February 8, Lost Ark has been playable for pre-order customers and since February 11 in the Free2Play version. Despite ongoing server problems, the game is a huge success.
- In a short time, Lost Ark became the biggest game on Steam. It even surpassed the peak of CS:GO with over 1.3 million simultaneous players. Only PUBG has ever had more simultaneous players (via SteamDB).
- In Europe, the game is so popular that the servers are completely overloaded and new ones need to be set up. Only in 2 countries are fans not allowed to play.
Where is Lost Ark banned? In Belgium and the Netherlands, Lost Ark is officially banned. This has been known since November 2021. This is particularly hard for gamers in these countries now.
Because Lost Ark is one of the biggest releases of recent times and obviously incredibly popular. Almost the entire editorial team at MeinMMO is playing the new MMORPG. Tough luck for the players of our neighboring countries, as a law is getting in the way.
Belgium and the Netherlands without the new top MMORPG
Why is Lost Ark banned there? Belgium and the Netherlands have stricter laws regarding gambling. Since 2017, the law has also applied to loot boxes in video games, as was the case in the case of Overwatch and Battlefront II.
As a consequence, developers and publishers had to either change their model and largely refrain from loot boxes, or prevent the release in these countries. This is what has happened with Lost Ark.
No specific statement exists on which content the release fails. In the Lost Ark shop, there are jewel boxes and card packs that contain random items, which could be the reason.
The same has already happened to Bless Unleashed in 2021. Here too, the loot box rule spoiled the fun for fans. Whether anything will change regarding the system, at least in Belgium and the Netherlands, we cannot say at this time.
Lost Ark is actually free to play, but it is accompanied by a cash shop and premium content that grant certain advantages. Paying players, for example, have less cooldown on certain spells or need to pay less silver for some services. There is also a discussion about the unpopular login queues:
Lost Ark: Should paying players be allowed to cut in line?
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