The studio is forced to restrict access due to U.S. laws, apparently

Aug 29, 2012 09:14 GMT  ·  By

Blizzard has confirmed that it would no longer allow people in Iran to access the Battle.net online service, due to the U.S. trade restrictions and its economic sanction laws.

Iran’s current political situation isn’t the best and it seems that this is now impacting the gamers currently residing in the Arab country, as Blizzard has confirmed that it would no longer allow residents to access its Battle.net online system, effectively shutting them out of experiences like Diablo 3, World of Warcraft, or StarCraft 2.

According to the company, this rather harsh measure has been taken in order to comply with U.S. laws.

"We can't speak to reports surrounding the Iranian government restricting games from its citizens. What we do know is that United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws prohibit Blizzard from doing business with residents of certain nations, including Iran. We've recently tightened up our procedures to ensure compliance with those laws, which means we must restrict access to our games by players in those nations."

It seems that quite a lot of Iranian gamers enjoyed Blizzard titles, as many are now complaining on the Battle.net forums because of this restriction.

Unfortunately, Blizzard can’t fight against the U.S. laws and restore access to its customers.

As of yet, it seems that Iranian players can still access Battle.net through proxy servers.