Western countries have significantly intensified sanctions against the Russian Federation due to the tragic situation in Ukraine. All of these have affected not only the country's economy, but also the gaming, streaming and esports industries. In a new Streams Charts article, we will tell how Western companies show their solidarity with Ukraine.
Gaming companies
- Electronic Arts has stopped sales of its games in Russia and Belarus, and also removed clubs and national teams of these countries from FIFA 22 and NHL 22 for the time of the conflict.
- CD Projekt RED has stopped sales of its games in Russia and Belarus, including both digital and retail copies for the time of the conflict.
- Sony and Nintendo have temporarily left the Russian market.
- Activision Blizzard has temporarily stopped sales of its games in Russia and banned Russians from making in-game purchases. The restriction also applies to subscription services, such as access to the official WoW servers.
- Microsoft has temporarily left the Russian market, and stopped sales of all products of the Xbox brand.
- Take-Two has temporarily stopped sales and support of its games in Russia and Belarus.
- Ubisoft has stopped sales of games in Russia and blocked its store in the country.
- GSC Game World has suspended the work on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and stopped sales of the games in Russia.
- Epic Games has stopped sales of in-game content for Russian users.
- Supercell will remove its games from digital stores in Russia and Belarus. These include such popular mobile games as Brawl Stars and Clash of Clans.
- Niantic suspended access to Pokémon Go servers for users from Russia and Belarus.
- Online game stores Steam and GOG stopped processing payments in rubles due to the volatility of the currency. Users from Russia are offered to change the currency to dollars or pay from the in-store e-wallet.
Streaming services
- Amazon has temporarily limited access to the streaming TV service Prime Video for Russian users, as well as canceled the translation of New World to Russian. In addition, payments to Russian users from Twitch were suspended due to difficulties with payment systems under sanctions pressure.
- Google and YouTube have completely shut down the monetization of the content for users from Russia. The video hosting stopped the YouTube Premium, Music Premium, sponsorship, superchat, superstickers, advertising, and merchandise sales functions.
- TikTok has blocked Russian users from streaming and uploading new content, and banned access to foreign users' content.
Esports companies
- Riot Games has postponed the launch of the third week of League of Legends and Valorant Continental League, as well as canceled the Russian-language broadcasts of the LEC's seventh week.
- Ukrainian tournament operator WePlay Esports has blocked Russian users on its platform and also ended its partnerships with companies from Russia and Belarus.
- Maincast has refused to work with Russian partners and replaced "_ru" with "_ua" in social networks.
- Natus Vincere has stopped cooperating with ESforce holding company because of its attitude towards the situation in Ukraine.
- Tournament operator BLAST has decided not to invite Russian teams to its tournaments.
- ESL has excluded Russian teams from tournaments, but allowed pro players to compete under a neutral status without the club and country symbols.
- Elisa Esports has suspended all Russian clubs from participating in its tournaments.
- Valve has postponed the start of the Dota Pro Circuit 2021/2022 spring season for Eastern Europe for an indefinite period, and also removed references to teams of the region from the official Championship website.
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The probable consequence of such foreign companies' decisions will be a new wave of piracy: influential Russian media are already discussing its possible "legalization" (we mean software from countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia). Meanwhile, problems with the most popular foreign social networks, streaming services, and video hosting services have been actively exploited by other similar services. For example, the Russian social network VKontakte launched a bloggers support program, and many Russian streamers began to register on the Trovo platform.
The Russian esports industry has suffered a lot from the current situation in the world, and it is almost impossible to imagine its existence separately from the international one. It should be noted that Russian players achieved the best results in CS:GO and Dota 2. And only time will show how the sanctions issue will be resolved.
Header image: The Global Herald