Steam bans free shooter set in WWII – Only German players are affected

Steam recently removed the free shooter Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (PC) from the German store. German players receive the message that the product is not available in the country. Apparently it is a regional lock.

What game is it? It’s about Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. This is a WWII first-person tactical shooter developed by Splash Damage and distributed by Activision.

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was released in 2003 as a multiplayer game in which the two competing teams must complete tasks or prevent the opponent from completing the tasks. There are five different character classes to choose from.

In Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, the Allies fight the Axis Powers within the WW2 setting. The maps are inspired by historical theaters of war. Enemy Territory is an expansion for the game Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001).

Reddit user discovers Wolfenstein’s Steam ban in Germany

How did the ban come about? The shooter only came on Steam a few days ago because Bethesda is giving up its store and is therefore releasing some of its old games for Steam. In addition to Wolfenstein, old games from the “Elder Scrolls” series also came to Steam. That’s why the shooter is “new” by Steam standards, even if it’s actually 19 years old. Therefore, the shooter has apparently seen some fresh.

Even if there was no official announcement from Steam regarding the blocking, it was noticeable that the shooter released in 2003 is no longer available in Germany.

For example, it shared Reddit user u/LongJonSiIver a screenshot stating that the game has been banned in Germany.

You can also understand the blocking on Steam itself. There, German players will receive the following message: “This product is currently not available in your country.”

MeinMMO has already contacted Valve for a statement regarding the regional ban of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, but has not yet received a response. We will update the article when new information becomes available.

Where can you download the shooter? The ban on Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory only applies to the German Steam Store. In other countries, the shooter can still be easily downloaded via Steam.

The lock of the shooter is therefore a so-called region lock, in which the game was locked for the specific region.

It is surprising that the developer studio of the shooter Splash Damage does not draw level with Steam when it comes to excluding German players. The title is currently (as of May 03, 2022) still available on the studio’s website for German players without regional blocking.

As early as 2020, German players experienced special treatment on Steam: the shop pages of some sex games were explicitly closed in Germany. At that time, Steam had reacted to the entry of a complaints institution with the Regio-Lock.

In Germany, the Wolfenstein franchise is known for repeatedly being confronted with restrictions. Well-known offshoots of the franchise such as Wolfenstein: The New Order or Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus received a separate German version.

In the German versions of the games, for example, names and appearances as well as National Socialist symbols were changed.