'Lost Ark' Could Be Coming To More Regions After All

Fans were disappointed when they found out that the highly-anticipated western release for South Korean MMO “Lost Ark” was going to get IP blocked in certain countries. However, the game’s western publisher has hinted that “Lost Ark” might become available to more regions in the near future.

The backlash caused by the IP block issue reached the ears of Amazon Games, “Lost Ark’s” publisher for North America and Europe. A thread was created on the game’s Steam community to address any questions and concerns players might have regarding the game, and a company representative who went by Windsward was able to shed some light on why things are going the way they are.

“'Lost Ark’ will be available in North America and Europe,” Windsward wrote in the post, before listing over 45 countries and regions, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, France, Germany and the U.K., among many others.

Windsward said that the list of regions that “Lost Ark” will be playable in are only the ones that the company currently has any publishing rights to. Amazon Games is legally unable to grant other regions access to “Lost Ark” because the game’s developer Smilegate did not give the company permission.

Unfortunately for Amazon Games and the rest of “Lost Ark’s” eager players, the game will not be available for other countries unless publishing rights are granted. However, there is still a chance for Amazon Games to acquire these publishing rights before the full game is released later this year.

When asked about what community members can do to help bring the game to other regions, Windsward said that they are collecting community feedback and are planning to escalate the requests to the right teams.

It’s likely that Amazon Games will negotiate with Smilegate for the publishing rights for the rest of the regions. This could mean that Latin America, Brazil and the rest of the left-out European countries may get access to the game in the future. Whether or not these negotiations will include Oceania, Africa and the rest of Asia is unknown.

Players who have been waiting for “Lost Ark” for years were devastated when the IP restrictions were announced. In an attempt to reach out to the publisher and developer, fans have started a petition asking for a proper global release of the game regardless of country-specific localization.

YouTuber MMOByte explained the implications of the possible opening of negotiations for “Lost Ark” as well as the other caveats of the situation in this video.