The Gaming Industry Unites to Cut Off Russia

Last week, the Ukrainian government put out a public call to “all game development companies” to “temporarily block all Russian and Belorussian accounts” in response to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Now, after a slow start, many of the game industry's major players are heeding that call and cutting off new sales in the country.

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French mega-publisher Ubisoft became the latest game company to take action against Russian customers Monday morning, telling Bloomberg that it is “suspending its physical and digital sales” in the Russian market. Take-Two announced a similar move earlier in the morning, telling Mashable that it is stopping “new sales, installations, and marketing support” in Russia and Belarus, including purchases made through the Rockstar Game Launcher.

The new announcements come after a flurry of similar actions taken by large game publishers over the weekend. Activision Blizzard announced late Friday that it will be cutting off game sales and offering a two-to-one match on employee contributions to relief organizations operating in Ukraine.

Electronic Arts also announced Friday that it is halting Russian game sales, including the sale of virtual currency bundles in its popular games, “while this conflict continues.” That action comes after EA Sports earlier removed all Russian teams from FIFA 22 and NHL 22, mirroring similar moves from international organizations managing those sports.

On the platform level, Poland's CD Projekt Red was among the first major game companies to block the Russian market, cutting it off from purchases on the GOG online store last week. “We know that players in Russia and Belarus, individuals who have nothing to do with the invasion of Ukraine, will be impacted by this decision, but with this action we wish to further galvanize the global community to speak about what is going on in the heart of Europe,” the company wrote.

By Friday morning, Microsoft joined in by barring Russian sales of all products, including Xbox hardware, software, and Game Pass subscriptions.

On Saturday, Epic joined the chorus by saying it was “stopping commerce with Russia in our games.” It's unclear if that ban extends to the Epic Games Store or development clearinghouses like the Unreal Marketplace. Regardless, Epic says it will continue to allow Russian players to access its games, citing “the same reason other communication tools remain online: the free world should keep all lines of dialogue open.” (Most other companies mentioned here have allowed Russian accounts to continue to access prior purchases as well.)