It seems to be blocked in China. I can't see the game card, anyway.

Thanks for that information. Just for the sake of the list, could you check if you can reach the game's Steam or EGS pages?

There have been cases before where games have been blocked in China by GOG but they were freely available on other stores...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/977880/Eastward
https://www.epicgames.com/store/de/p/eastward

It isn't blocked on the Steam store, but it's blocked on Epic. Curiouser and curiouser.

Could it be that it is "blocked" not because censorship, but because they have another deal with another publisher especially for China?

Thanks a lot for confirming this, and to ChrisSZ and ysbird as well.

I'm afraid I made a mistake with the EGS link, though - the EGS link I posted has the German language code "de" in the URL (I just grabbed the first link I could find and it defaulted to Germany for me). So maybe the EGS blocked you because of that - not sure how the region lock system works on that store (should be IP based regardless of which language you choose, right?)

Unfortunately, this is not the first case of a game being region locked in China on GOG but being available on Steam. You can find more examples on the list - these also include at least one game which is region locked for a bunch of other countries such as Taiwan or Malaysia.

Can someone tell me whether the Steam entry for Eastward mentions a different publisher? On GOG, it's Chucklefish.

Kinda worried if I should have bought this, seeing as China just threatened WW3 and it could be seen as funding the enemy. I like the game, but I live in the states and I dunno how they feel about me giving money to China right now considering recent events. Am I just paranoid or should I refund the thing?

If you buy this you're giving money to Chucklefish, who are based in the UK. What happens to the money after that depends on the agreement between Chucklefish and the developers.

Pixpil is an indie developer. Just because it is based in China doesn't mean it has ties to the government.

Funny how China keep cracking down on more and more things. Like recently they ban effiminate men in their entertainment industry. Their censorship is getting more and more ridiculous

Everything based in China has ties to the govt, or at very least, is answerable directly to it. Just ask Jack Ma. Sorry but being indie does not make them above the law/authorities.

Yes, but as you can imagine some things are over-reported in western media while other things go under-reported. None of my family are too fussed about people not emulating k-pop idols (except one Auntie!) but the younger ones are pretty livid over the gaming restrictions.

Hmm, I looked this one up because it sounded pretty strange.

https://www.techinasia.com/china-doesnt-censor-skeletons-the-truth-about-game-censorship-in-the-middle-kingdom

It sounds like it's much more common to censor skeletons in Chinese versions of western games than it is Chinese games. I guess we'll need to hear first hand from a Chinese person buying the Chinese version to know for sure.
Come on man, go to pretty any physical store and you'll find things made in China. Why would anyone single you out for buying a computer game when people are mass-importing merchandise from China? If you want to refund it for moral reasons you can of course do so, but if you think you're going to get in trouble with the US government that's definitely paranoia. As others have said, it's just an indie developer.

Oh yeah gaming restriction. It just ridiculous how they turned into nanny state. Also just because not many care about effiminate men I'm just pointing out how there's no freedom in choosing what entertainment they want to consume.

Right, right. Considering I have a Chinese companion doll I guess I shouldn't be too worried about it. I have no idea what I was thinking that night. Thanks for talking sense into me.