Nowhere said that it's "restricted", I guess you can rather read it as "targeted at".
Does this make sense? Don't know.
But you have to see that there are 1 billion people in China, and quite an amount in the surrounding countries, and that this game is probably meant to be aimed at the people there, and not at westerners. The western population already got the Civ series. Which is sure also available in Asia. But like many people often like to point out, the Civ series seems to be eurocentric, with many european civs, a european tech tree, and some things more (e.g. design of great people). Which is less likely to attact people which don't have that much in common with that culture area. So if you want to get all the customers from there, you have to create something, which is more to their taste.
If you say "that can't be a too big difference", then you have to see e.g. World Of Warcraft. You know, they had to change the Skeletons in that game for China, because they have another cultural perception of Skeletons, as part of their ancestor worship.
While it might seem ridiculous for you, it's a big deal there.
And there might be also such differences in the Civ series (not about Skeletons), which also need a change for Asia. Who knows? I don't. But I guess they made some market research to find that out.
That's the serious interpretation.
The less serious interpretation is that they'll give Bismarck manga eyes and spiky hair, and you'll only be able to negotiate with Catherine from a position from where you see her panties. And since everyone here would go "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO", they say it's meant for Asia
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Take whatever interpretation you like
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