Polish developer and publisher CD Projekt Red is moving to suspend both digital and physical sales of its games in Russia and Belarus, as well as shutting off access to its own digital storefront, GOG.com, while the two countries continue to wage war upon Ukraine.
They’re not alone in taking action at this time, as some studios such as This War of Mine developer 11 bit studios donating sales of their game to the Red Cross, and horror game developer Bloober also choosing to block Russian and Belorussian sales. Russian teams have also been pulled from FIFA. However, what makes this more significant is that they are blocking a digital storefront. In the last few days, Ukraine’s government petitioned Microsoft and Sony to consider blocking Russian and Belorussian gamers from accessing their digital accounts, games and storefronts, though neither company has yet responded.
— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) March 3, 2022
In a tweet making the announcement, CDPR said:
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 galvanize 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!
Russia and Belarus have made up a not-insignificant percentage of CDPR’s sales in recent times, with 5.4% of all CDPR product sales coming from these countries, and 3.7% of sales revenue through GOG.com.
CDPR rightly say that they are, unfortunately, affecting people within Russia and Belarus that have nothing to do with the invasion, but are lending their weight to the wide-ranging economic sanctions and business withdrawals from the countries over the matter. This will all impact their citizens harshly, but is sadly one of the only ways that the rest of the world has of exerting extreme pressure on the regimes in charge of Russia and Belarus.
