Sony gets people scratching their heads after region-locking purchases of Horizon Forbidden West, 10 entire months after its initial release

pcgamer.com:

Despite it being a move that's 'almost tank your only real live-service success of the year' unpopular, Sony has region-locked another game a staggering 10 months after its initial release. Picked up by a ResetEra user, Horizon Forbidden West, as per SteamDB, is now unable to be purchased in a list of countries—a list that's consistent with its PSN availability, despite the game not requiring an account to play.

This is, understandably, causing a great deal of headscratching—with Sony doubling down on a move that has proven historically unpopular and, from a consumer standpoint, seemingly without a proper objective in mind. Horizon Forbidden West has already been available for the better part of a year, and it's not as if it'll contribute to PSN user numbers in any meaningful way—so why close the curtains now?

While I've reached out to Sony for comment, and will update this article if I receive a response, I can make some educated guesses. To be clear—I'm not attempting to justify Sony's decision here, I think it's weird and short-sighted, but I am also cursed with the burden of knowledge and will share what I can to illuminate the situation.

While I'd like to sweep in with a theory that explains everything, the truth of the matter is this whole thing's bound to be complicated and multifaceted. I'll deal with the obvious first—some of the countries involved are just straight-up dictatorships, and are thus boycotted. For example, North Korea's on the list.

This isn't even a new move. Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine has seen much of the gaming industry refusing to do business with the country. With physical goods, this makes a lot of sense—wartime and governmental corruption makes for easily-pilfered inventory and inconsistent shipping issues—but, as studies mentioned in the article I just linked, digital piracy can be just as prevalent. Typically, it's just more trouble than it's worth.

But what about the other countries present? Speaking bluntly, Sony is a