Iranian Gamers Unable to Play Apex Legends Due to Sanctions

Gamers based in Iran have revealed that they are barred from accessing Respawn Entertainment’s free-to-play title, Apex Legends, due to sanctions imposed by the U.S. government.

ResetEra user RevengeTaken reported that Apex Legends was the only Electronic Arts-published title that was inaccessible in Iran, which prompted gamers to contact EA support for answers. However, nearly all of the support agents abruptly ended the live chats after declaring that they were unable to help. One support agent claimed that the issue was down to “internal reasons.”

When users took to EA’s official forums to quiz the publisher about the issue, they were told that the company is acting in compliance with U.S. laws.

“At the moment it’s not possible to access the game from Iran as we are acting in compliance with U.S. embargoes and sanctions laws,” wrote an EA community manager who goes by the name EA_Andy.

There are additional reports of Anthem‘s demo and The Division 2‘s beta being inaccessible in Iran but it’s unclear if sanctions will affect full releases of both titles.

According to RevengeTaken, it’s possible for Iranian gamers to connect to Apex Legends via VPN and using another country’s IP. However, it affects pings and the experience is far from smooth. Players have been left perplexed by this development considering EA’s previous titles are accessible, and other multiplayer games released by various North American developers and publishers also work, including Fortnite.

“I’m not trying to take a side in any political party or favor behaviors of a country over another,” wrote RevengeTaken. “But please understand that we, Iranian people, are human, we are gamers, we love games, and we make games.”

Unfortunate situation.

[Source: EA, ResetEra]