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US Treasury: Games not "the focus of our sanctions"

World of Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft are not the kinds of goods the US is hoping to keep out of Iran, a Treasury spokesperson has said in the wake of Battle.net's sudden unavailability.

Speaking to the LA Times, US Treasury spokesman John Sullivan said there's no reason why Blizzard couldn't request an exemption.

“Clearly the focus of our sanctions is not on video games. We would consider a license request from Blizzard Entertainment should they choose to apply for one," he said.

Battle.net and associated games became unavailable in Iran last week. Blizzard's official stance on the withdrawal is that sanctions block it from offering its services - or refunds.

Prior to Blizzard's statement, some Iranian gamers pointed the finger at local authorities, suspicious of a new task force dedicated to banning games with content deemed undesirable.

Thanks, GwynbleiddiuM - and gratz on being quoted in the article.

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In this article

Diablo III

Video Game

StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty

Video Game

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World of Warcraft

PC, Mac

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About the Author
Brenna Hillier avatar

Brenna Hillier

Contributor

Based in Australia and having come from a lengthy career in the Aussie games media, Brenna worked as VG247's remote Deputy Editor for several years, covering news and events from the other side of the planet to the rest of the team. After leaving VG247, Brenna retired from games media and crossed over to development, working as a writer on several video games.

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