Ukraine Officials asks Sony, Microsoft and Valve to ban Atomic Heart sales

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John Elden Ring

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The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine has noticed the release of the Russian game Atomic Heart and will send an official letter to Sony, Microsoft, and Valve to ban the game's sale in Ukraine.

Here's What We Know​

According to dev.ua, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Oleksandr Borniakov commented on the game's release:
"We also call for limiting the distribution of this game in other countries due to its toxicity, potential collection of user data and the possibility of transferring it to third parties in Russia, as well as the potential use of money raised from game purchases to wage war against Ukraine.
Bornyakov also called for all users to ignore the game. He emphasised to the Western audience that the developers have not issued a public statement condemning the Putin regime and the bloody war that Russia has waged against Ukraine.

Flashback​

Atomic Heart is a Russian game by Mundfish studio, sponsored by Russian publisher Gaijin and Gazprom top manager Anatoly Paliy. This was reported by Ukrainian blogger OLDboi.

The developers are trying to pretend that they are a Cypriot studio, but events for media representatives in Moscow and Russian sponsors immediately show who the authors really are. The game will be set in the Soviet Union, where a robot uprising has taken place, forcing a KGB officer to save the country. The gg editorial team urges you not to buy the game and not to sponsor the Russian government.
 
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This game has nothing to do with the Putin regime though?
And if we are going to play guilty by association, how many games are funded by the middle east and Islamic countries who are none too keen on the gays and ladyboys?
 
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peter42O

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Wow. I don't see any of the three doing this especially Microsoft.
 

adamsapple

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To my recollection, the developers of the game are heavily against the occupation. This is definitely a tough situation for all parties.
 

ethomaz

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It is a bit trick.

Is the studio that made the game involved (like funding) the war? If not then I see no reason to bully a developer due what is happening between their politics.

Now if the Studio is helping/funding the war then I see a precedent.
 

Yurinka

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It is a bit trick.

Is the studio that made the game involved (like funding) the war? If not then I see no reason to bully a developer due what is happening between their politics.

Now if the Studio is helping/funding the war then I see a precedent.
As far as I know and from what I see here, the game is developed by Mundfish, a company from Cyprus. Their investors are Gaijin Entertainment (originally founded in Russia, moved to Hungary 7 years ago), GEM Capital (from Cyprus) and Tencent (from China), plus Nvidia as tech partner.

From what they say in that page, the studio has people from ten countries (it's pretty common in AA/AAA studios to have people from several countries) being one of them Ukraine, but don't mention Russia.

I don't know the reason of why they want to censor them, maybe the Ukranians of the studio are from the part of Ukraine with a majority of Russian speaking/Russian ethnicity people. And/or they didn't want to move to Ukraine to join the Ukraine army.

I't s also a AA studio from a smal Eastern Europe country making their first game, these folks aren't some huge rich corporation capable of funding something. I mean, they needed multiple investors to fund their game.

And I don't see any remotely decent connection to Russia's government. Seems they are paranoid and are trying to censor the game for no reason. And in any case, I have no simpathy for people who wants to censor stuff. I have no remote interest for the game and I don't have time to play it. But if I had some interest on it I'd go to buy it now.

And well, (assuming they aren't guilty of anything) if I'd be the company who made the game I'd consider to take legal actions against these idiots.
 
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adamsapple

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I don't know the reason of why they want to censor them, maybe the Ukranians of the studio are from the part of Ukraine with a majority of Russian speaking/Russian ethnicity people. And/or they didn't want to move to Ukraine to join the Ukraine army.

From what I've played of the game so far, it's steeped in Russian imagery and a lot of notes, diaries etc read like army propaganda, probably because of things like that.
It's set in an alternate history Russia.
 

Yurinka

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From what I've played of the game so far, it's steeped in Russian imagery and a lot of notes, diaries etc read like army propaganda, probably because of things like that.
It's set in an alternate history Russia.
The little I know from the game it's like some sort of Bioshock set in a -very fictional- futuristic / retrofuturistic alternate universe USSR/Russia. I mean, very different from reality. And well, it's a FPS so I assume there should be the army/KGB/etc stuff. Like in many shooters or war games, but in this case in that setting instead of in the typical American one.

I mean, the games of that size take many years to be made, pretty likely was mostly developed before the invassion and the game is in a clear fantasy setting with fying robots, monsters and so on so I highly doubt they had any propaganda purpose, specially being made by a company with Cyprus from many people from many countries and not from Russia.
 
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