The Polish game developer CD PROJEKT Red, most famous for The Witcher franchise and Cyberpunk 2077, have shown support for Ukraine by stopping all product sales, both physical and digital, in Russia and Belarus.
In a press release sent out by the company they stated:
“In light of the Russian military invasion in our neighbouring country of Ukraine, until further notice the CD PROJEKT Group has made the decision to halt all sales of our games to Russia and Belarus. Today, we begin working with our partners to suspend digital sales and cease physical stock deliveries of CD PROJEKT Group products, as well as all games distributed on the GOG platform to all territories of Russia and Belarus.
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 aspire to be one, we do believe that commercial entities, when united, have the power to inspire global change in the hearts and minds of ordinary people. 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 galvanise the global community to speak about what is going on in the heart of Europe.
To our brothers and sisters fighting for their home country – stay strong!”
Read the press release here.
These are not the only sanctions in Russia and Belarus.
In the last few days, the news has been flooded by sanctions towards the invading country and its ally, for example – Russia’s central bank and Russian banks who use Swift, an international payment system have been stopped from being used in the EU, as well as the UK, US and Canada. Russian and Belarusian athletes have also been banned from competing in sports events across the world (though they are still allowed to compete at the upcoming Paralympics in China), amongst other restrictions.
In the gaming world, there have also been restrictions towards Russia. EA has removed Russian and Belarusian teams from their sports games as well as game sales in both countries, Steam has halted pay-outs to Russian developers and Microsoft has halted sales of hardware and software in Russia.
Alongside this, the Pokemon Company donated $200,000 USD to GlobalGiving towards humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Remedy Entertainment has also pledged €50,000 to the Red Cross which will also go towards humanitarian aid in Ukraine. While Russian citizens in the UK have spoken about how the restrictions have affected them, only time will tell if these will contribute to the end of the conflict in Ukraine.
Words by Chloe Gardener
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