Publisher says it is complying with United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws in its move to restrict access to Blizzard games in Iran and other nations.

Blizzard has blocked access to its Battle.net service in Iran, according to a statement the publisher made to Polygon this week.

Battle.net has been blocked in Iran.

The issue first came to light from reports on the Battle.net forums detailing problems that users in Iran have had with connecting to World of Warcraft and Battle.net.

However, Blizzard's WOW terms of use specifically mention Iran as one of the countries in which Blizzard does not authorise its games or services to be used:

"The software utilised by World of Warcraft and/or the service may not be downloaded or otherwise exported or re-exported into (or to a national or resident of) Cuba, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Iran, Syria, or any other country to which the U.S. has embargoed goods “By using the service, you represent and warrant that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any such country or on any such list."

Responding to Polygon's request for comment, Blizzard issued the following statement in regards to the incident, clarifying that the publisher made changes to comply with United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws that went into effect this week.

"We can't speak to reports surrounding the Iranian government restricting games from its citizens. What we do know is that United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws prohibit Blizzard from doing business with residents of certain nations, including Iran. We've recently tightened up our procedures to ensure compliance with those laws, which means we must restrict access to our games by players in those nations."

Blizzard did not comment on which countries outside of Iran are also affected by the publisher's changes in response to the United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws.

GameSpot contacted Blizzard for comment, but the publisher did not reply as of press time.

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