The world community actively condemns Russian armed aggression against Ukraine and gradually refuses to cooperate with Russia. So let's find out what sanctions critical companies of the cybersports world have imposed and how they will hit the Russian economy.
Overall, the Russian video game market ranks eighth in the world in terms of revenue, which was $2.7 billion in 2021. Fifty-three percent of Russians play PC games regularly.
Mikhail Fedorov's post on Telegram regarding game developers and cybersports corporations that supported Ukraine as of March 7:
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Ubisoft has suspended the sale of games in Russia. The company releases Assassin Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six.
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EA Games halted sales of its products in Russia and Belarus.
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Steam has limited the ability of Russian users to buy games and pay for services.
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WePlay Esports began blocking users from Russia on the tournament platform. And also will not broadcast Dota 2 Invitational Series Dubai 2022 in Russian.
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Epic Games «stops commercial relations» with the Russian Federation.
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Rockstar Games and Activision Blizzard (which has the rights to Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft) stopped selling games in Russia.
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CD Projekt Red (Cyberpunk 2077, Warlock) withdraw from selling their games in Russia and Belarus.
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Elisa Esports on CS: GO eliminated all Russian clubs from participation. This means that the organizers will not invite teams such as Virtus.pro, Team Spirit, Gambit Esports, forZe, and other clubs that belong to Russia.
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GOG stopped processing payments in rubles.
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Sony has postponed the release of Gran Turismo 7 in Russia indefinitely.
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GSC Game World, including S.T.A.L.K.E.R., is no longer available in Russia and Belarus.
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Amazon suspended work on localization of MMORPG New World in Russian.
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NAVI broke off cooperation with RuHub, VirtusPro, CybersportRu, and EpicEsports Events.
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Minecraft was removed from AppStore and GooglePlay in Russia.
In particular, the Ukrainian organization NAVI severed ties with the Russian holding and called on the international community not to succumb to Russian propaganda.
«No one is oppressing Russians in Ukraine. Only your propaganda convinces us of the opposite. [...] Tell your relatives and friends what is really happening in Ukraine. [...] Do not keep silent!»
After the dissolution of ties with Russia, large international cyber-sports organizations were interested in cooperating with NAVI. One of them was BIG (Berlin International Gaming). They made collaboration and launched a common merch, and the money raised from sales will go to support Ukraine.
«Together with our partners from @BIGCLANgg in Germany, we are launching a clothing line for all NAVI fans who want to support Ukraine. The money from every sale will be sent to the account of the National Bank of Ukraine for humanitarian purposes. », NAVI wrote on Twitter.
