Steam recently removed the free shooter Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (PC) from the German store. German players receive the message that the product is not available in their country. It appears to be a regional lock.
What game is it? It is Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. This is a tactical shooter set in World War II, developed by Splash Damage and published by Activision.
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was released in 2003 as a multiplayer game, where the two opposing teams must complete objectives or prevent the opponent from completing theirs. Players can choose from five different character classes.
In Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, the Allies fight against the Axis powers within the WW2 setting. The maps are inspired by historical battlefields. Enemy Territory is an extension of the game Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001).
Reddit user discovers Steam restriction of Wolfenstein in Germany
How was the restriction noticed? The shooter just recently appeared on Steam because Bethesda is shutting down its store and is therefore releasing some of its old games on Steam. Alongside Wolfenstein, old games from the “Elder Scrolls” series also made their way to Steam. Thus, the shooter is considered “new” for Steam standards, even though it is actually 19 years old. Some players seem to have just taken a fresh look at the shooter.
Even though there was no official announcement from Steam regarding the restriction, it was noticeable that the shooter released in 2003 is no longer available in Germany.
For example, Reddit user u/LongJonSiIver shared a screenshot stating that the game has been banned in Germany.
Even on Steam itself, the restriction can be verified. There, German players receive the following message: “This product is currently not available in your country.”
MeinMMO has already inquired with Valve for a statement regarding the regional restriction of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory but has not yet received a response. We will update the article when new information becomes available.
Where can you download the shooter? The restriction of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory applies exclusively to the German Steam store. In other countries, the shooter can still be downloaded via Steam without any issues.
The restriction of the shooter is thus a so-called region lock, where the game has been restricted for the specific region.
It is surprising that the development studio of the shooter, Splash Damage, does not align with Steam in excluding German players. On the studio’s website, the title is currently (as of May 3, 2022) still available without regional restrictions for German players.
Already in 2020, German players experienced special treatment on Steam: The shop pages of some adult games were specifically closed in Germany. At that time, Steam reacted to the filing of a complaint with the regional lock.
In Germany, the Wolfenstein franchise is known for constantly facing restrictions. Well-known installments of the franchise such as Wolfenstein: The New Order or Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus received a separate German version.
In the German versions of the games, names and appearances as well as Nazi symbolism were altered.
