Video game companies are ceasing ties with Russia
This story about doing our part, boiled down, in 1:20 minutes.
What’s the fuss?
Ukrainian officials have called upon different parties in the gaming industry to cease ties with Russia to help with the war effort. They’ve responded.
The situation
On February 24th, President Vladimir Putin addressed his nation of Russia to announce a “special military operation” against the neighbouring country of Ukraine.
- What followed was an unprecedented invasion by land, sea, and air upon the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and other major cities.
- With current peace talks failing, the rest of the world has imposed various sanctions against Russia which has left their economy in disarray.
Ukrainian deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov has formally requested for video game firms and esports operators to sever relationships with Russia for the time being.
- Fedorov has spurred gaming firms “to temporarily block all Russian and Belorussian accounts, temporarily stop the participation of Russian and Belorussian teams and gamers in all international esports events and cancel all international events holding on the territory of Russia and Belarus.”
- The government has specifically called out the major gaming companies, notably PlayStation and Microsoft.
Boiling it down
Major gaming developers have taken action through numerous avenues, including:
- Electronic Arts have removed Russian teams from their FIFA and NHL franchises to emulate the decisions of the real life leagues.
- The developers of anti-war game This War of Mine are temporarily donating its profits to fund the Ukrainian war effort.
Major esports teams are also doing their part to help the Ukrainian cause.
- Large European esports operators BLAST Premier and Elisa Esports have temporarily banned Russian-owned organizations.
- Ukrainian esports team Navi cut ties with its Russian holding company for insensitive comments, in addition to their star player donating $33,000 to the Ukrainian army.
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