Lost Ark Not Available in Belgium, The Netherlands, and South Africa

gamerant.com:

Lost Ark was recently released in North America and Europe after being available in South Korea since 2019. Gamers around the world have embraced Lost Ark as the game has been doing exceptionally well on Steam, however, it seems that the game is not available to a few countries for various reasons.

Back in 2018, the Netherlands Gaming Authority (NGA) came down hard on games that featured loot boxes. The NGA made the practice illegal, which meant that any publisher that did not comply would either be fined or have the sale of its games banned in the region entirely. The Belgian government followed suit, ultimately stopping loot boxes dead in their tracks in the region. The investigation came about after the Star Wars Battlefront 2 controversy, which included some pay-to-win mechanics with Star Cards via loot boxes.

Asmongold Hits 400K Viewers While Waiting for Lost Ark Servers

Now it seems as though Lost Ark is unable to be published in both countries owing to their regulations relating to paid items containing RNG rewards in games. In Lost Ark players are able to purchase Gem Chests and Packs of Cards with real-world money, as well as fast-track the refinement process by purchasing high-level components from Mari's Secret Shop, also with real-world money.

Lost Ark is also not available in South Africa, although this is not due to any laws that the country has put in place. South Africans are allegedly unable to access the game owing to Amazon not having access to the publishing rights for the region. South African gamers have not been met with an official response as yet, and it's unclear when one might come.

Lost Ark is currently Steam's second most-played game even without support from the above-mentioned regions. The game