Steam banned in Vietnam
User reports: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/4362376335340911703/?ctp=2
Likely because Steam has not complied with local laws (in fact, they have no local presence at all on Vietnam).
I do wonder if Steam is going to do anything. Complying with Vietnam's regulation is probably too burdensome to be worth the revenue, but on the other hand, Steam's promise with their DRM has always been that they would "unlock" the games if they had to shut down, and now they're shut down in a specific country.
Vietnamese Steam users have been sold products which they cannot play at all anymore, at least while following the laws of their Communist (so, totalitarian) regime. It's not a great situation for them.
Well, to be honest, they're probably going to do nothing. But I do wonder to what extent Valve, who knew they were not in compliance, should have not sold games at all in Vietnam? Similar to the Helldivers situation, surely they knew this shoe was dropping.
See, this is why when people would say Steam was ok DRM because they claimed they would remove the DRM if they had to be shut down didn't really make me think it was any better. I mean, I actually am not against DRM, i am against DRM that requires an online check in with a service where the company can easily remove your access for whatever reason they want (or even things that may be out of their control like in this case). Because first of all, you are just relying on their word. And it's a company, people change in a company, new people run it. New people who didn't make that promise. That's just number one reason why not to trust that. Number 2, if Steam really got shut down/went out of business, do people really think they are guaranteed to have the resources to make good on that promise (when they have all sorts of other things to worry about at that point)? Third, simply put, that's just people saying something. That's not an actual guarentee. Not unless it is in a contract some how that they legally have to make good on.