Following Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the video game industry rallied together to show support for Ukraine with calls to action and options to donate to help. Some developers and publishers have taken another step and have halted game sales in Russia. Today, Bloober Team, CD Projekt, EA, Microsoft, and PlayStation are just some of the few that have made the commitment.
Bloober Team announced that the ban on its games will come first to Steam. “We understand that our decision might affect many Russian and Belarussian players who are not involved in this invasion,”, Bloober team said. “but we strongly believe that every step that can help stop the war is worth taking.”
CD PROJEKT Group took to Twitter and said that they will be working with their partners to suspend digital sales and cease physical stock deliveries as well as games distributed on the GOG platform. The company also wrote “The entire CD PROJEKT Group stands firm with the people of Ukraine. While we are not a political entity capable of directly influencing state matters, and don’t inspire to be one. we do believe that commercial entites, when united have the power to inspire global change in the hearts and minds of ordinary people.”
EA has already shown its support for Ukraine by removing the Russian teams from FIFA 22 and NHL 22. Today, the publisher said that “we have made the decision to stop sales of our games and content, including virtual currency bundles, in Russia and Belarus while this conflict continues. As a result, our games and content will no longer be available for purchase in our Russian region storefront on Origin or the EA app, including through in-game stores. We are also working with our platform partners to remove our titles from their stores and stop the sale of new in-game content in the region.” EA will continue to actively evaluate other areas of their games and operations while reviewing other steps the company can take.
Microsoft said that they will be suspending all sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia.
PlayStation’s next exclusive Gran Turismo 7 is now available starting today. However, it seems that the game has been pulled from sale in Russia. Eurogamer reports that the game is currently unavailable to purchase on the Russian PlayStation Store. As of now, there has been no official word from Sony about Gran Turismo 7 getting pulled from the Russian PlayStation Store.