Vietnam has decided to completely ban Steam from its territory, perhaps due to complaints from local developers.
Steam has been completely banned in Vietnam for unspecified reasons. In reality, there are already some hypotheses in the field, but none have yet been confirmed. In particular Gameindustry.biz believes that the Vietnamese state was pushed by how Valve manages the platform.
According to Vietnam.net , however, it is possible that the measure came after complaints from local developers regarding the size of the Steam catalog. Basically, Vietnamese developers cannot compete on an equal basis with others since they are subject to government approval , where most games on Steam are published freely.
What is perceived as an injustice to local developers could lead to the closure of many studios if Steam is allowed to continue publishing games without government scrutiny as it does for Vietnamese games.
A solvable situation?
It is fair to reiterate that for now we are only in the field of hypotheses , given that the government of Vietnam has not yet expressed its opinion on the issue, just as Steam has not. However, currently all internet service providers in Vietnam have blocked Valve’s platform at all levels, both client-side and website-side, with many complaining about the situation on the Steam forums . Note that no one seems to know the reason for the ban.
Naturally, many have already found roundabout ways to overcome the block, but some solutions appear to be only temporary and do not completely compensate for the impossibility of access with local internet networks.
It is not the first time that Steam has had problems with the global nature of the current market and the policies of different states. Just recently the PlayStation issue took center stage which, wanting to force the creation of PSN accounts on PC users, led Steam to remove Ghost of Tsushima from sale in territories where it is not possible to register one and to refund buyers automatically. Valve has always stated that it operates in accordance with local laws.