Ukraine officially asks Sony, Microsoft, and Valve to ban Atomic Heart
Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation has officially asked Sony, Microsoft, and Valve to ban the sale of Atomic Heart on their platforms, after previously announcing this move. The country’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who also leads the Ministry of Digital Transformation, has sent letters to the leadership of all three companies, which he also publicly posted on Twitter.
“I do believe neither of these businesses support bloody regime, murders or romanticizing communism. Brand new level of Russian digital propaganda – using gaming industry,” the minister commented.
“According to information we have, the above-mentioned game, [was] developed by Russian studio Mundfish. As Mundfish has Russian management and offices, there is a potential risk that money raised from the purchase of the game will be transferred to Russia’s budget, so it will be used to fund war against Ukraine,” the letters read.
Fedorov urges the business leaders to “ban the selling” of this game on all their platforms and to stop promoting “symbols that [are] covered with blood”, also emphasizing that the development studio has not publicly expressed its position on the military actions of the Russian Federation. Asked about this, Mundfish merely gave a vague “pro-peace” statement and refused to condemn the Russian aggression.
Atomic Heart heavily features the Soviet Union, the KGB, and Russian military themes, which is obviously not going down well in Ukraine due to the ongoing illegal invasion of the country by the Russians, who have verifiably committed hundreds of war crimes in this process. Russia’s attack was launched on February 24, 2022.
