In Turkey, there has been a proposal to tighten control over Steam and Epic Games Store

The Ministry of Family and Social Services of Turkey has prepared a draft law, which, if passed, would impose stricter regulations on the operation of Steam, Epic Games Store, and other game stores in the country.

Specifically, the ministry proposed requiring companies that own these stores to open official representations in Turkey. This requirement primarily targets owners of major platforms with daily user counts exceeding a certain threshold.

The ministry also wants stores to assign age ratings to all games available to Turkish gamers according to authoritative systems like PEGI or ESRB. If a game fails to receive a rating for any reason, it will not be allowed to be sold in Turkey. Additionally, officials advocated for stores to generally consider “local cultural characteristics” when selling games in Turkey, though the specifics of this requirement remain unclear.

According to the draft, compliance with the regulations will be overseen by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority of Turkey. It will have the power to demand the removal or modification of problematic games and even request user data and logs if necessary.

It is anticipated that if stores refuse to comply with the rules, Turkish authorities will have the right to limit their bandwidth in the country by 90%. Essentially, this would effectively block the platforms.

The draft law is currently under revision and has not yet been submitted for consideration by the Turkish parliament.