At the start of the week, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister called on games companies – notably PlayStation and Xbox – to cut themselves off from these markets, and asked various publishers, including EA, Ubisoft and Riot Games, to close their offices in Russia. Many video game companies then mobilized to support Ukraine, whether by helping them financially or by blocking the Russian economy. Here is a non-exhaustive list, and updated regularly, of all the JV actors having implemented actions against Russia.
Microsoft suspends its Russian market
This is probably the biggest initiative on this list since in addition to blocking sales of Xbox and subscription services to the Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft also prevents the use of a panoply of software in Russia. Moreover, the company allows Ukraine to better protect itself in terms of cybersecurity.
“We continue to work proactively to help cybersecurity officials in Ukraine defend against Russian attacks, including most recently a cyberattack on a major Ukrainian broadcaster.” explains Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, in a official statement.
DOOM and Pokémon financially support Ukraine
For their part, the developers of DOOM and the Pokémon Company have decided to financially support the country which is being invaded by Russia. In the first case, an exclusive level was created for DOOM 2 and players wishing to use it must then pay the modest sum of 5€. The money is obviously donated to an NGO in Ukraine.
On the TPCI (The Pokémon Company International) side, it’s a donation of $200,000 which was carried out in order to provide humanitarian support to refugee families and children from Ukraine.
Games banned in Russia
It’s first Electronic Arts which hit hard by removing all Russian teams and players from FIFA 22 and NHL 22. Now the company has outright banned all of its games in Russia, just like CD Project Red with Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher.
On his side, sony also seems to have blocked the launch of its March flagship title in Russia: Gran Turismo 7. The company ActivisionBlizzardKingit has suspended all transactions and micro-transactions of its games on Russian territory, without forgetting a donation of 300,000 dollars to Ukraine.
Esports players and teams show their support for Ukraine
Esports is particularly affected by all the restrictions in Russia since many teams compete and have fun in this field without worrying about the origin of the players. Recently, the Ukrainian player S1mple made a very moving speech on this subject, explaining that he had enjoyed playing against Russian players, that we should not forget to remain human above all and that esport should not not get involved in politics.
Here are some other esports news to remember regarding the Russian-Ukrainian conflict:
If all these players and all these video game companies support Ukraine as best they can against Russia, other companies are directly impacted by the conflict, such as GSC Game World. With premises based in Kyiv, Ukraine, the studio is obviously having a hard time finishing the development of STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl. The latter has been postponed many times but the raging war has turned all the release plans for 2022 upside down. Now, the open-world FPS development has been halted in order to “to help the employees and their families to survive as much as possible”.
nintendo
Five years have passed and the small hybrid console from the Japanese manufacturer will have made an impression on the minds of young and old. Today, the Nintendo Switch blows its fifth candle, the opportunity for us to look back on the 10 most significant games in its history.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus