The Finns have withdrawn from Vietnam. This is not a geopolitical event. Rather, Helsinki-based Supercell said that earlier this month it decided to pull its mobile games from iOS and Android in the Southeast Asian country. Supercell cited “local regulatory issues” as the reason for this action.
Last week, Vietnamese media VNExpress reported that 142 games were removed from the App Store and Google Play in Vietnam. The Ministry of Information and Communications said those games were removed because they had something to do with gambling, violence, profanity, and “distortion of Vietnamese history.”
The ministry noted that companies with games in Vietnam needed to have a local office in the country. It’s not clear what reason may have affected Supercell.
“Although we will keep an open dialogue with our local partners and the government we haven’t yet been able to find a good long-term solution that would enable us to continue our operations in Vietnam,” the company said in a post on its website. “We hope that this is not a goodbye and we will try to find the right ways to continue developing our games to our Vietnamese players.”
Supercell said players could sign up with a Supercell identity. That would enable players to not lose their progress in games entirely, in case the company can re-enter the market in the future.
“We are sorry for the situation and apologize for the trouble and inconvenience this will cause to our players in Vietnam,” Supercell said.