Square Enix Gets Twitch Strike For Streaming ‘Forspoken’ During Embargo, Thanks To Time Zones
from the dead-zone dept
One of the more annoying aspects of how the video game industry conducts its relationships with gaming journalists is the concept of embargos. The idea goes something like this: publishers will furnish journalists and/or game streamers with advanced copies of games, but include an embargo on any reporting, reviews, or streaming those games prior to a certain date. Sometimes that date is the release date of the game, so that there aren’t reports or displays of the game prior to it going up for sale. Sometimes the date is actually pushed out past the release date. Both are pretty naked attempts by publishers to not generate any potentially negative press before the public can spend gobs of money on a game they don’t know might suck out loud. It’s a crappy process and it would be better if everyone simply agreed to not accept advanced copies unless the embargo is lifted, but that has never happened.
But there can also be challenges with enforcing those embargoes. For instance: were you all aware that the planet is round? Crazy right? With that roundness comes another wild thing: time zones. And with time zones comes an infuriating practice of having different release windows for a new game based on those time zones. How does that create challenges with embargoes? Well, when you get a Twitch streamer temporarily banned with a copyright strike because they streamed a game that “hasn’t been released,” but it actually has been in New Zealand, that’s how.
Square Enix’s brand new RPG, Forspoken, is to be released on January 24, 2023, and streamers worldwide have been looking forward to trying it out on their streams. However, one creator from New Zealand by the moniker Gtamen has been handed a two-day ban by Twitch after a copyright strike.
The YouTuber has claimed that the game was legally out in his country when he streamed it on Twitch, that is January 24. Meaning that the copyright strike, which is still in effect at the time of writing, would be entirely unfair. Here’s a screenshot of the blurb that pops out when trying to access his channel.
The notice for the 48 hour ban very specifically indicated that the reason for the ban was for streaming an “unreleased video game under embargo.” Because of the way that time zones and the release windows for Forespoken were handled, though, the game was released in New Zealand. That country is basically the starting point for time zones, which means the game was released there before the vast majority of the rest of the globe. But it was released at the time of the stream.
Some folks made excuses for Square Enix by noting that the embargo was listed as lifting at 2pm GMT, which is based off of London’s time zone. And while that may be technically true, that means that a Japanese company is enforcing an embargo based on the time in London for a game that releases essentially first in New Zealand.
The post from the streamer sparked quite some reactions, with some claiming that the ban was legitimate, considering the embargo on Forspoken ends at 2 pm GMT on January 23. Meaning Gtamen technically did break the stipulations, however, he did retort by claiming that the game had been unlocked by the store and should, therefore, not be subject to the embargo.
And to put the finest point on this, the streamer in this case technically broke the embargo by roughly 12 hours, but received a 48 hour ban. That seems fairly silly, no?
Filed Under: copyright, embargos, forspoken, streaming, time zones
Companies: square enix, twitch
Comments on “Square Enix Gets Twitch Strike For Streaming ‘Forspoken’ During Embargo, Thanks To Time Zones”
time zones are accounted for
As you said, the embargo date has zero to do with release date and never has. So the point that it had already been released in New Zealand is invalid. The embargo ending was 2pm GMT Jan 23, and if you have a hard time figuring out what time that is in YOUR time zone there are several lookups available on the internet. The embargo didnt release at different times depending on time zones, it released at the same time everywhere.
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nummy nummy boots
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My thought exactly. GMT (or more commonly UTC to avoid confusion over British Summer Time) is the computer industry standard for specifying time unambiguously regardless of timezone.
OTOH, the strike is for an “unreleased” game, not just for violating embargo. So part of the blame may lie with the platform (Steam?) that allowed the streamer to play the game prior to the global release date+time. And given Twitch’s technical problems over the past couple of years, there’s no guarantee they entered the end of embargo correctly either.
There are a couple details missing that would clarify how reasonable this action was. First, was the streamer provided a copy for review / streaming by the publisher and subsequently subject to any embargo terms or did he pay retail for it and thus technically not a party to said embargo (assuming nothing about it was buried in the license agreement)? Second, did Twitch have an agreement with Square Enix to not allow streaming of the game by anyone before the embargo was lifted? If so, how did they communicate said restriction to all affected streamers?
Regardless the reason for the ban should probably remove the word “unreleased”.
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I was wondering this too. And either way, what the fuck would this have to do with copyright? It would be a simple contract dispute that shouldn’t involve Twitch.
I would point out embargoes themselves aren’t an actual problem and do have their uses – giving review code in advance of release and setting an embargo date for the reviews, gives the outlets a chance to take their time playing the game to give a more rounded review, without embargoes everyone would be in a rush to post their review first. (For example some games will have the embargo expire a week before release)
The issue is more on how they get abused – setting embargo date after release for example or supplying review codes last minute so outlets cannot fully review games.
Back in the day .. games would have free demos for d/l.
Now you have trailers – boring.
Those game demos were loads of fun and certainly lead to sales, not only software but also hardware.
48 hours is fair
When you broke an agreement, you can be sued for actual damage as well as punitive damage.
Assuming the streamer did promise to an embargo that would end in 12 hours after the streaming, a ban on all streaming on twitch (not just the said game) is punitive. Hence the 48-hour duration has nothing to do with the actual embargo time.
Ban absolutely justified, Kiwis too stupid to tell time – news at eleven.
Round?
“were you all aware that the planet is round?”
Apparently not all of us.
Are you guys nuts? They effectively banned a CONSUMER. Anyone in NZ could have legally bought the game, and ended up streaming it. Unless in the EULA it says that the end user could not stream it until X date and time, the embargo was on journalists and people given free copies for reviews.
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It would be a mistake to let software companies force arbitrary terms on consumers. Did New Zealand make this mistake?
Repeat after me - It's only a game
Things like this are the reason I stopped gaming at all for any reason if it’s not open source. I refuse to be a part of a community like is being promoted with the current closed game culture. It’s grasping, dishonest, and greedy.
48 hours
no big deal really
GMT? UTC? UT1?
Timezones are great. Iran is 30 minutes off of their neighbors. Indonesia has its own interesting takes…
In the US we have 4 timezone except that in some we don’t observe daylight savings time (DST) except that in one of those we do except that in the center of that one we don’t. (Arizona, Navajo, Hopi).
GMT is a meaningless construct from WWII and is no longer useful, as “summer time” changes its offset from UTC or UT1.
Current terminology is UTC[+/-]offset. So, for example, EST is UTC-0500. GMT can be UTC or UTC+0100 depending on the time of year.
If you care about the children, no more GMT. UTC is what the reference is.
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My understanding is that British Summer Time is not the same as Greenwich Mean Time; GMT does not follow DST so GMT and UTC are effectively interchangeable. Which I suppose would mean, from your perspective, that there’s no reason to use GMT at all.
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“A meaningless concept from WWII”
Uhm, clearly you didn’t go to school in the UK, or you’d have learned in excruciating detail the history of it dating back a century prior to WWII, when it was used to keep international shipping coordinated, prior to the development of 20th century communication and positioning methods.
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And of course, needless to say, GMT predates the UK’s adoption of the concept of daylight saving time by almost a century as well, as BST was not established until 1916
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