Talk:SnowRunner

Patch 28 from Jan 31st, 2024, added a feature that enables the game to replace Ford branded trucks with fake nonames depending on player's region, due to complaints from Ford. People on Steam report that this replacement kicks in depending on account creation region, not current region (https://steamcommunity.com/app/1465360/eventcomments/4203615689064653056/?ctp=3#c4203615689068740593). Probably should be mentioned somewhere on the page, along with the restoration mod, whenever one becomes available.

Looking at the patch notes, the changes are made for players in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine regions but it is not clear where they are getting the player's region from. According to SteamDB the game is still not actually available for purchase in those regions as well.

It would also be good to get a source that these changes were "due to complaints from Ford," though I would say chances are good it's because of that or some type of licensing issue.

I remember reading something along the lines of "Ford doesn't want their trucks to be available to players from said regions" on various gaming websites about two months ago, when Saber Interactive announced rebranding Ford for those regions as a way to make the game available again (https://vk.com/@sabergames-snowrunner-brand-change), but it doesn't say why exactly they had to pull it in the first place. Still, it coincides with the fact that only the base game and Season 1 DLC are unavailable for purchase, which, according to IGCD, both have 1 Ford truck each.

Thanks for the link. I do see a previous post on there with the title "SnowRunner Return Message" has the following (Bing translated):

"The base game has been withdrawn from sale as a precautionary measure due to ongoing legal negotiations with our licensing partners. Some of these issues were settled, and we planned to bring the game back to sale with the release of Season 12. However, due to new discussions, this will not happen."

So with that statement it's probably fair to call this a licensing issue.

So I went ahead and found out that the brand replacement is handled not by the Steam account creation region, or even current region (tbh I don't even think the games can access that data), but the Windows country/region setting. This one: https://i.imgur.com/EyoBD6J.png Once I change it from RU, BY or UA to any other, the rebranded trucks become Ford again. Here are two screenshots I made back to back, changing the region between taking them: https://i.imgur.com/Lec88b6.jpeg and https://i.imgur.com/GWtAhFX.jpeg The game has to be restarted of course, but not even a reboot is needed.