because they operate in the EU as well and as such have to comply with their laws as well
being a US company does not mean you can open a branch in EU and ignore its laws just because your HQ is based in the US
Facebook is doing all the time :rolleyes:
facebook does a lot of things it def should not be doing :rolleyes:
I’m from Iran and my IP is restricted here too , I cant browse Unrealengine.com and also can’t download the Engine from launcher .
Good news for all of us who were affected, thank you !
Please also consider the following:
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Add Belarus (and other blocked countries if they missed too) to the list of countries in the Account settings. So that Account registration information will be absolutely complete, correct and unambiguous.
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Browsing at least part of unrealengine.com doesn’t require signing in, so could it be possible to unblock these parts prior the complete resolution?
Good thing to hear. I’m from Lebanon and I’ve been blocked as well. Had to resort to a VPN.
I suppose that you may do like Oracle did in such situation. You may download their products anywhere without any limitations but you have to accept EULA. EULA says:
Oracle is a huge company and I believe that they have enough layers to solve any in a best way.
In Microsoft EULA I see a link to their Exporting Overview which has the same sense (just written in other words).
It seems that even biggest companies do not try to control export restrictions themselves. End users have to do it according to EULA. If they violate EULA - it is their (not yours) problem.
I like that solution too.
Huh? Are you serious? Do you think that politicians will make games? Or maybe you can imagine Unreal Engine powered tanks, planes, rifles or even nuclear missiles? I respect your company and your decisions to make sources for UE available and to make UE free. I’m very impressed with actions. I also appreciate your efforts to solve problem. Really. But the way how meticulously you implement laws make me think that Stallman was right and I immediately should drop usage of proprietary software at all and use only free software :D. (in terms of freedom and open source) With all my respect.
Hey, Biliogadafr - Please just accept Epic’s desire to remain 100% compliant with national and international rules and regulations. You are certainly free to drop usage of whatever software you want, but I’m pretty sure they (Epic) will work something out that’s as reasonable as the law permits. Give it some time.
Hi ,
Thank you for the reply.
Hope you the team at epic fixes soon.
Sorry I overreacted in the previous post. Please note that “not available in your country” messages are very common when you live outside of US/EU and they are not fun at all.
We actually enjoyed using the engine, and Epic has always been kind in the past. We were proud users of the Unreal Engine(s), and that is why when we got blocked it really upset it us.
Anyway thanks again and good luck.
And yes, please change the block message on your website to something more friendly like: “Sorry you’re not able to access the website, we are working on it, and it should be up and running in a week hopefully” or something
No worries, .
xananax, agreed, we didn’t handle situation well and could’ve done much better.
In hindsight it is obvious that IP blocking sucks and was a bad call. I was in the approval chain for and should’ve known better.
Thanks for the various links and bits of information - much appreciated. I wish we had figured out better before launch. I’ll keep you guys posted when there are new developments.
From the EULA:
If your primary residence (or primary place of business, if you are a legal entity like a corporation or an academic institution) is in the United States of America, your agreement is with Epic Games, Inc. If it is not in the United States of America, your agreement is with Epic Games International S.à r.l., acting through its Swiss branch.
We’re sorry for the delays and complications on .
The US laws are complex and we have realized our blocking was overly-aggressive. Over the coming week, we will be working hard to open up the downloads and website as widely as is legally possible. requires talking to a lot of lawyers and modifying the web site.
Since we have a lot of Russian-speaking developers in thread, please tell us: What else (besides fixing our broken web site!) should we doing to make UE4 more accessible for you? Are the English language documentation and videos useful, or should we be localizing them? Should we be localizing the Unreal Editor UI? Should we be setting up more Russian language forums, or do you already go elsewhere for discussins?
Greetings, !
Most of us do understand that legal and especially government stuff is a tough thing, and while the beginning of whole story was a bit grim, most of the fuss regarding matter had come from understandable frustration. As mentioned, it could’ve been handled in a much better way. There was a lack of communication with the community in the first place in regard to , the thing to be avoided in the future. Still, the development showed that you guys are really concerned by the problems of the community. Now is what is great and much appreciated. Keep it up! If something like ever comes up (and I don’t mean exclusively the legal stuff) — do come to the community. Epic Games doing an job with Unreal Engine 4, a revolutionary one, and it is a treasure. We’re always here to help you help us :). Even if it’s a tiny bit of information that we can provide, a thought, an idea, or even a frustrated voice — it is to be heard.
As for the Russian-speaking developers — althought it is my personal opinion, I believe that many will share it. We are mostly professionals and an integral part of the international community, even hobbyists are. Without of at least sufficient knowledge of English language it is pretty hard to imagine anyone getting into game development and stuff. Not, of course, is capable of effective communication on all levels, but mostly we can to some extent freely use the documentation, video tutorials, etc. in English.
As we are the members of the international community, we want to contribute to it and take benefit from being an integral part of it. means that anything done to the international community will be right-away beneficial for Russian-speaking developers too. I don’t think Epic should at point go after translation of documentation and video tutorials to Russian. There’s a bunch of topics still not covered in English docs and video tutorials — it will be great if Epic will focus on getting complete coverage in English first, so internationally will have a win-win. I personally find official documentation and video tutorials extremely helpful, as they are the only really accessible educational resource for. In fact, I believe there’s never enough of tutorials, and while it is understandable that Epic’s resource aren’t infinite, I’m very like to see you guys even more heavily investing into docs and tutorials.
As for the Editor UI translation — well, at some point of time probably will be good to have it, but I wouldn’t myself mark task as a critical one. The reasons for is all above.
If to talk of localization in general, then (again) the full support for international localization by Unreal Engine 4 looks like the most appropriate thing to implement. It’s no doubt that it will be found beneficial all around the globe, including those who speak Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and much more.
With all respect to the Epic Games team,
, thank you!
Treidge is absolutely right about the translations and non-English languages handling. I would just add that in my opinion it would be very helpful to have the good subtitles in English for video tutorials. is because for many (who have little practice in spoken language) it is still simpler to read than to directly perceive the speech. Subtitles could be really handy.
It would require an enormous effort from Epic, please don’t forget that there are not only Russian language. Treidge is right - it would be better for all if Epic will concentrate on English version. There are still too many remain to improve the documentation, provide detailed tutorials, etc.
Yeah, maybe you’re right.
I’d love to get my books translated into Russian 
But progress has been slow on that front :<
In russian?
Well most of developers are somehow knows the english and a lot of them can do translation themselves for others if they want. It would be great if there would be more deep lessions from epic games, like creating stats, or making about animations… do not know exactly what to say. Video guies about not how to texture or create a light or how to place a rock. But how to make ai behavior and other tough stuff. In english do not spend time and money for translation. In english but much deeper and difficult topics