Citing U.S. Sanctions, League Of Legends And More Blocked In Iran And Syria

Do you want some politics in your gaming news? Who doesn't! Today, we're talking about the United States' sanctions against Iran, which have generally consisted of sanctions against Iranian exports to the U.S. Now, however, there's one U.S. export that isn't available in Iran: League of Legends.

Over the weekend, a player in Iran posted on the LoL forums a message that he received when trying to access the game from his home country. It read:

"Due to U.S. laws and regulations, players in your country cannot access League of Legends at this time. Such restrictions are subject to change by the U.S. government, so if and when that happens, we look forward to having you back on the Rift."

A similar message is being presented to League players in Syria, an ally of Iran, forcing players in both countries to us a VPN if they want to play.

As commented in that thread, this is not Riot Games' decision, but rather a requirement imposed by the U.S. government. According to PCGamer, the Epic Games Store and EA's Origin are also not available in Iran and Syria (and North Korea, for the EGS), and we'd imagine that other, smaller, games and stores have followed suit (though we couldn't find anything referencing Steam's availability in those regions).