Video Gamers in Iran have now been restricted from playing one of the most popular and addicting games in the world. W.o.W. (World of Warcraft).

The server that hosts the game (Blizzard) has now cut off  the connection for access to World of Warcraft  players in Iran due to trade restrictions placed on the nation by the United States.

The Online host has received hundreds of postings from players in Iran, wondering why their accounts were inactive. Blizzard released a statement saying Access was lost recently, because it had  to “tighten up its procedures to comply with sanctions”.

Currently Iran has sanctions put on them because of the Iranian Nuclear program that Western nations fear is being used for weaponry, and not the energy source that Iran claims to be developing the technology for. 

Here is the statement that was released on the 24th of August from the Blizzard Technical team:

“Our team has been watching this thread closely, and we understand the desire for more information about this situation. Blizzard Entertainment cannot speak to any reports surrounding the Iranian government restricting games from its citizens.

What we can tell you is that United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws prohibit Blizzard from doing business with residents of certain nations, including Iran. Several of you have seen and cited the text in the Terms of Use which relates to these government-imposed sanctions. This week, Blizzard tightened up its procedures to ensure compliance with these laws, and players connecting from the affected nations are restricted from access to Blizzard games and services.

This also prevents us from providing any refunds, credits, transfers, or other service options to accounts in these countries. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes and will happily lift these restrictions as soon as US law allows.”