The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine has decided to take action against the recently-released game Atomic Heart. The Ministry has announced that it will reach out to Valve, Sony and Microsoft in order to urge the companies to pull the game off digital storefronts. In addition, the Ministry has encouraged players worldwide to boycott Atomic Heart due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the developers’ views on the Russian invasion.
Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Alex Bornyakov said that the Ministry would send a letter to Valve, Sony and Microsoft this week to impose a widespread ban on Atomic Heart sales in Ukraine.
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The main reason behind this is the developers’ stance on the Russian invasion. The Ministry believes Mundfish’s lack of public statement over the war against Ukraine seemingly makes them pro-Russia. Atomic Heart also has quite a big Russian origin which makes this whole situation tricky.
In addition to seeking out a ban on the game, Alex Bornyakov has encouraged all gamers to boycott the game if they support Ukraine. In a statement he said:
“We also call for limiting the distribution of this game in other countries due to its toxicity, potential gathering of user data with possible transferring it to third parties in Russia, as well as the potential use of funds from the game’s sales to continue waging war against Ukraine,”
Alex Bornyakov claims that Mundfish was also funded by “Russian enterprises and banks that fell under sanctions and are of systemic importance to the Russian government”. He continued to state that Mundfish got its money from a Russian state-owned energy corporation Gazprom.
Bornyakov has yet to reveal whether or not Mundfish has any direct link to the Russian government. If that is the case, it would be a completely different situation. However, the developer has publically stated in the past that it has several developers from Ukraine who took part in creating Atomic Heart.
Atomic Heart isn’t available for sale in Ukraine in physical form. Gamers can purchase it on Steam and the game even has Ukrainian subtitles.
I reviewed Atomic Heart earlier this week and if you decide to boycott it, you’re not missing much. It isn’t wonderful by any means. You can read my review here.
Source: Dev.au
