Blizzard bars Iranian players from World of Warcraft

ISTANBUL

Blizzard said it had tightened up its procedures to ensure compliance with sanctions.

Video game maker Blizzard had to cut off Iranian access to its popular game "World of Warcraft" (WoW), as part of U.S. sanctions against the country.
 
A statement by Blizzard said U.S. economic sanctions meant the company could not do business with people living in certain nations, including Iran, the BBC reported yesterday.
 
The statement came after a week of complaints by Iranian players, who said they could not access the game. Many of the players posting their complaints on Blizzard's European Battle.net online forums said they could not access the game unless they used a proxy server. 
 
Blizzard said it had "tightened up its procedures to ensure compliance with sanctions, and players connecting from the affected nations are restricted from accessing Blizzard games and services." The company said it could not give refunds to players or transfer their accounts. 
 
"We apologize for any inconvenience this causes and will happily lift these restrictions as soon as U.S. law allows," Blizzard added.
 
The ban on WoW was imposed by Blizzard, but the BBC said some reports suggested a ban on a wider scale, that is being imposed by the Iranian state. 
 
Players of WoW and other online games have complained on online forums that access to a number of games has been banned by the Iranian government on the grounds that they "promote superstition and mythology."