Steam's Indonesia ban has been reversed, but the Epic Games Store remains suspended

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Companies need to sign up to a government agency to reinstate access

Steam
(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Steam was temporarily blocked in Indonesia, but has now been reinstated along with several other online services.

As first reported by Niko Partners' Daniel Ahmad earlier today on August 2, Steam had unfortunately been banned in Indonesia by Kominfo, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. It turns out this was because Valve had actually failed to register with Kominfo prior to an imposed deadline, and were now subject to being blocked for all Indonesian users.

The block list didn't stop at Valve though. The Epic Games Store and EA's Origin client were also blocked throughout the nation, as were PayPal and Yahoo. All these companies, just like Valve, had failed to register with the Indonesian government and were subjected to the complete ban.

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The good news is that now Steam, PayPal, and Yahoo have all been reinstated in Indonesia. Thanks to Valve and company having now registered with Kominfo and the Indonesian government, their services have finally been unblocked, and normal service can resume for PC gamers throughout the country.

In fact, Kominfo has actually apologized to Indonesians for blocking Valve and Steam. As reported by Tech Nave, director of Kominfo, Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, said he felt gamers' frustration and sympathized with them, partly because he's also partial to a video game or two (apparently he's an avid fan of golf games).

Unfortunately, the Epic Games Store and EA's Origin both remain blocked in Indonesia at the time of writing. According to Ahmad, there's no word from either Epic or EA on whether they even plan to register with Kominfo at all, so there's no telling how long the bans on both companies could last for.

Check out our upcoming PC games guide for a list of the very best games launching on PCs worldwide over the coming months. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.