Lost Arkwas recently released in North America and Europe after being available in South Korea since 2019. Gamers around the world have embracedLost Arkas 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, theNetherlands 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 theStar Wars Battlefront 2controversy, which included some pay-to-win mechanics with Star Cards via loot boxes.
RELATED:Asmongold Hits 400K Viewers While Waiting for Lost Ark Servers
Now it seems as thoughLost Arkis unable to be published in both countries owing to their regulations relating to paid items containing RNG rewards in games. InLost Arkplayers 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 Arkis 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 Arkis currently Steam’s second most-played gameeven without support from the above-mentioned regions. The game currently has an all-time peak of 1,325,305 concurrent players, which means it still has a ways to go before reachingPUBG’s ridiculous 3,257,248 concurrent players at the games' all-time peak, but is still off to a great start.
Lost Ark’s European and North American launch wasn’t entirely smooth sailing. Amazon publicly acknowledged the issues with the game’s launch and offered players three days of Crystalline Aura as a way to make up for it. Crystalline Aura gives players various boosts that increases the amount of experience players earn among other things.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the game’s server problems asLost Arkrecently experienced an issue that would not even allow players to join the lengthy server queues.
