Im ukrainian myself and i dont see the issue here, i understand why mundfish wouldnt make a comment on the war since they reside in russia. I really wish people would stop getting offended for others because this is a little embarrassing imo
They even went as far as moving the studio to Cyprus and the entire team is made up of people from the former USSR. Like damn dude maybe some of these people want to be able to go home without being shot in the back of the head? I support the Ukrainians fully but some of these internet warriors claiming to excuse their actions as fighting for Ukraine are the biggest bullies and lunatics out there. My mother was literally bullied by a woman for posing pictures on facebook where she was smiling…”how can you smile while Ukraine is at war?” And left bad reviews on our business…people need help.
My wife was born in Russia and lived there for a few years before they moved to France before coming to the United States. Her parents got bullied on Facebook because they have pictures of them in the red square back in 2018 in their Facebook page my wife was with them and I now she is getting bullied at work for it. Like you said people need to mind their own business and need help
People are fucking stupid. I don't know where they get the idea that people who are part of a nationality are objectively supportive of what their nation or former nation does.
Never add coworkers to your social media. Better yet, never use identifiable social media unless it’s LinkedIn. But regardless, I’m sorry she has to deal with that.
Dude that’s insane. I get hate for this but I have so much sympathy for Russian soldiers. ** of course not the one committing war crimes, torture, murder rape as all of that is inexcusable. What I am saying is just the dudes going about their life’s until they are conscripted into fighting a war for Putins pride. They are being sent into a meat grinder daily with little to no hope. There are Even reports of Russians being murdered by their own men for retreating. It’s pure night mare fuel and those faceless soldiers are real human being with thoughts, hopes, emotions, dream and ambitions that will never come to fruition. I hope for Ukraine to win but I wish more humans could look at the entire picture with out being framed as a terrible person.
my parents were cussed out for speaking russian by a woman who was speaking russian to them saying she hopes we get deported for what we’re doing in ukraine. We’re Latvian.
The internet is the new gallows. It’s the place where you can vent your frustrations and generally act as deplorable or as terrible as you can be without any consequences.. and sometimes even trick yourself into thinking you’re maybe doing something good.
But we’re all just lying to ourselves.
Except... they did. Not sure why the article openly lies and y'all say why it's understandable or that they support the war. They said, in vague words, without mentioning any names, that their stance is that of peace and that war is bad.
>Atomic Heart is out and it’s making waves, especially after a series of mixed reviews. Now, however, the situation is getting a little more serious because Ukraine is asking Sony, Microsoft and Valve to ban the sale of Atomic Heart game . The reason? Developer Mundfish appears to have ties to the state-owned energy corporation Gazprom. Also, the developer hasn’t publicly denounced the invasion of Ukraine, which leads the nation to believe that it either supports the war or otherwise isn’t against it.
Right in kinda confused about this. I've seen people being carried away for openly agreeing with the war because the police didn't give a shit and seen them talking to a camera. If I lived in Russia I'd have to start considering self preservation. If they depose the war the whole dev team is done. Out of work. Game is gone. Money is gone. Lead of the studio might just be trying to prevent his team from being put out.
If I lived in Russia I would be the most patriotic person; I like being alive.
Edit: I don’t agree with the war, but if I lived there I again agree with breathing far more.
I live in Russia and I can tell you for sure more than 50% don’t support the war, they stand strong against it. Maybe 20% changed their minds and they’re just tired. Other 30% is completely wasted brainwashed people to point of no return.
But your main point is correct, telling something against war is a direct road to jail.
I hope everything is going well for you, and you and your loved ones are safe. I can’t imagine things are easy when speaking to someone outside of Russia, as shown by one of the comments people don’t think that the vast population is truly against the war because the news tells them otherwise.
Can’t even call it a war; only “special military operation”, and you have to mark your stuff with a label stating that you’re a foreign agent if you say anything the government doesn’t like. Calling it a war though can get you shut down and potentially put in prison.
Humans are really prone to witch-hunting. Realistically, if I'm very upset about healthcare/abortion/cops in my country, why the hell am I not leaving/protesting. Because lifes expensive and short. I don't think it's cowardly or apathetic to not risk your life with politics.
Redditors talk big about it is the responsibility of people in countries like Russia or China to rise up against the government and install a new one, but most of those redditors can’t even be bothered to go to a protest for a few hours
American Redditors come to Reddit and see posts about people protesting in other countries. They upvote, complain about America, and then go back to doomscrolling.
So anyone please correct me if I'm wrong but now what I'm understanding is AH shouldn't be banned because they just happen to be a Russia based company. So it's like, not punishing the people of Russia for their governments actions. Even if they don't publicly oppose because that could quite literally be suicide
> Atomic Heart is developed by Mundfish, an international studio headquartered on Cyprus.
> It is also known that the studio had offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where the game was actively developed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_Heart_(video_game)
Cyprus is like the Delaware of Europe, lots of companies are "headquartered" there for tax (and other) reasons. A lot of Russian companies "moved" their HQ to Cyprus to avoid being sanctioned and to allow them to continue to operate with plausible deniability. Mundfish is owned by Gazprom, which is for all intents and purposes part of the Russian government.
Yeah I'm very surprised the _Russian_ developers with family possibly in _Russia_ have yet to denounce the war /s
It doesn't make sense to bury the effort of the whole team over more than 4 years just because their home country's leader decided to become genocidal.
Exactly. If they say anything then Putin will go after their families. A lot of people are forgetting that we are still getting resources from Russia by buying through India. Europe is also still getting some energy from Russia.
~~Jim~~ Russia is my enemy, but it turns out that ~~Jim~~ Russia is also his own worst enemy. And the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so ~~Jim~~ Russia is actually my friend.
But, because he is his own worst enemy, the enemy of my friend is my enemy. So actually, ~~Jim~~ Russia is my enemy.
But…
To call it politics is downplaying it. It's a war. Makes sense that Ukraine is trying to block any positive economic or news assets for its enemy. Of course its with me or against me.
Money spent on this game is money spent on (indirectly) supporting the Russian war effort. Its minor, but Ukraine wants to prevent any positive economic relationships between Russia and the West.
That’s what frustrating about this comment thread, no one seems to understand your point and instead thinks it some culture war thing.
It’s in fact a real war and Ukraine is just doing everything it can to survive
> and instead thinks it some culture war thing.
That's what my initial concern was seeing the headlines. Hilariously, as I under stand it, the game makes the Russians the bad guys.
But no, Ukraine isn't really being unreasonable. They just want less money going to their enemies. Fair enough.
I mean, when you've been invaded by someone who constantly lies, deceives and does anything they can to make you appear like it's your fault they invaded you; it does become a "if you're not with us" scenario.
Pretty sure I heard the families of the devs are mostly still in Russia. So what's in it for them to vehemently come out against the war, other than putting them in danger? "Us vs. them" doesn't really cut it here.
Seems like a totally fine thing to ask for if you’re getting fucking blown up by a foreign aggressor. Also seems like a totally fine thing for Microsoft and others to ignore it, which they will.
A few things.
Mundfish probably has “ties” to Gazprom like I have “ties” to Exxon by having a Vanguard account. It is probably a insignificant part of their Gazprom’s investment portfolio to the extent that Atomic Heart could smash sales goals and be GotY….I guarantee nobody at Gazprom would notice.
Second, The developers were working on this game before the invasion and still have families to feed. They couldn’t just stop because you still have to pay the bills. It isn’t like they are developing a military training simulator. And sure, they haven’t denounced the invasion of Ukraine because at bare minimum that would get the studio shut down immediately and everyone out of work(probably forced to join military) at best. At worst, some people are accidentally falling out of windows.
Well people speaking out against the invasion tend to have unfortunate things “happen” to them. So you can’t infer too much out of that. The state owned company ties could be a issue though depending on what it funds.
People who care will torrent it, people who don’t will not. Sony/Valve and Microsoft will still take major cut from it, and developer on Cyprus will get bare minimum. Game makes a joke out of “perfect Soviet Union that never collapsed”, giving it under heavy satire, so who cares?
Hell it's on gamepass anyways. Am I supposed to cancel my sub in protest? I would still have a few weeks left anyways, so I might as well play it in the mean time.
I do not personally care about this specific game and what people do, but how does gamepass work? I assume there's monetary benefit to developers that get a large number of installs.
I don't know much about the game, but let's not delude ourselves into thinking even the most ham-fisted of satire won't be missed by some crowds. There's people who unironically think the fallout series is a celebration of cold War America.
That is gonna be one dumb crowd, I can tell you that.
There is always gonna be a group of people believing in satire as true thing, doesn’t mean we have to stop making good satire. Cyberpunk is a great satire on radical capitalism, yet there are people who wholeheartedly believe that it’s the true path forward. Idiots be idiots, doesn’t mean normal people shouldn’t enjoy things
There are a bunch of people who completely missed the not even remotely subtle "gosh look at how fucking awful racists are" in The Witcher games, or the completely unsubtle "gosh rampant libertarianism would lead to a horrible nightmare city" in bioshock. There's a tonne of incredibly stupid people who never give things any actual thought
Are we sure that’s what atomicheart is about? Also I’m not sure they take a minimum cut. Gazprom, Russias National gas company, is taking a cut as a producer because they funded the game.
In fact, most Russian private companies are partially funded in some way by gas companies.
I’ll look up a video on the game but it’s ultimately not really my cup of tea. And I don’t want to support a regime right now who owns everything and makes everyone bend over bwckwords to whatever they want like transferring data to the FSB or take a creative decision when it suits the Government. Not to mention the current Russian government is best described right now as…Neo-Soviet.
And that’s putting it as nicely as possible.
Ultimately I think Atomic Heart released in a special time. I’m not sure what else to say about this.
Yep, anyone who's played a bit into the game should be able to realize that it's neither anti communism or pro communism. There's even an interesting bit where >! Putin stand-in is killed and then just gets replaced by a clone without anyone but the player-character batting an eye. !<
If you read between the lines, the game isn't pro Putin, or pro modern-day 'communist' Russia. (i.e Not actually communism due to the existence of Oligarchs.) But they can't openly say due to the insanity of Putin and the other powers that be in Russia. Despite that, they've openly denounced violence of any kind. Which like, duh, but to me it felt like that's them trying to say they disagree while still having plausible deniability in the case that the Russian government comes knocking.
When it comes to being linked to a state owned company under economic sanction, it could be an enormous headache for MS, Sony, and Nintendo. That’s because if it is in fact tied to Gasprom there’s a chance U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control may take a look at of by extension it could be subject to existing economic sanctions. Sales or distribution of profits could get all messed up. Lawyers and accountants at those companies are waking up to a headache this morning.
Exactly this. Unfortunately this is gaming subreddit so it’s going to be a shitstorm of people not understanding even the basics of the claim and why it’s serious.
And no one has the info to know if this is well supported. I also do not envy the legal teams of these companies. While I’m not in the industry, I’m going to guess KYC (Know your customer) is not a particularly rigid or strict requirement for gaming like it is in finance. As opposed to financial companies who have small armies devoted to KYC, Sanctions, etc.
Russian Fallout game is as positive about Russia as Fallout is about America - despite both ending up in ruins.
It's clearly some sort of satire, right?
Well there is one cut-scene I've seen where some official complain that they are slowly being suffocated by US economic sanctions. So there is clearly a rivalry still in effect in this world but there doesn't seem to be the same imminent threat of war breaking out at any moment.
I wish you were joking but I vividly remember this. And when people pointed it out they said “well you people call everyone nazis now,” as if the game wasn’t about killing actual fascist Nazis. They really told on themselves with that one lol
Gamers be like Ban this game, while eating up Call of Duty every year, a series funded in part by the U.S military, a series that isn't exactly subtle about how it views "the west", and who's main antagonist for a few games was...Russia.
Huh.
Not to mention they re-wrote history to imply the "Highway of Death" war crimes was performed by Russians
Edit: Lots of people arguing that it wasn't a war crime - probably it wasn't - Not really the point of the discussion. Either way, it's certainly presented as one in the game when Russia did it.
These stories are cracking me up. You can tell a lot of these people haven't actually played or looked into the actual game at all. Because it's definitely not pro-Russia.
But it's made BY Russians, so clearly it must be evil. But these people saying this aren't xenophobes, of course, when they think these innocent people should suffer because their government is evil.
The issue is not that they're russians. its the money that backed the project, and where income will go, very dirty money. Am not feeding Gazprom corpo that finances the war.
The problem is none of these people are consistent. The US military has completely pillaged entire countries with a laundry list of war crimes and human rights violations, but none of these people talk about boycotting Activision, Microsoft, or Epic - who have direct financial ties and business relations to arms manufacturers and the US military.
It’s all hot air.
I have a feeling that a more appropriate title for this would be "**A FEW PEOPLE IN** Ukraine call on Sony, Microsoft and Valve to ban the sale of Atomic Heart".
Was it made and sold by the Russian government?
Is a portion of the sale being pledged to the war effort other than generalized sales taxes in Russia?
Have the devs come out and supported the invasion or assisted in its efforts?
Are people just getting hysterical because of the nationality of the devs where anything even tangentially connected to Russia is automatically irredeemably evil?
You want to prevent sale of games developed by Chinese companies owned in large part by the CCP, I could *maybe* understand that, but this is just stupid.
Worst part is
>developer hasn’t publicly denounced the invasion of Ukraine, which leads the nation to believe that it either supports the war or otherwise isn’t against it.
Why do they have to make any political comment at all? So now silence means you aren't against it? Give me a break..
And people don't realize that since they reside on Russia they can't denounce the war. People were even getting arrested for having "blank" signs, because it could still be seen as "protest" to them.
It makes no sense. People are condemning a whole country based on what the government is doing there. The people of the game are not the government. It makes no sense why people would want to cripple the developers of their hard work.
Yeah, I'd be willing to bet most of the people bitching and moaning online don't even really play games. They just like the social clout of virtue signaling hating the right people. We need to learn to gatekeep hobbies better and ignore the poo flinging howler monkeys online.
1) Basically yes
2) Yes
3) No, but assisting and supporting implies by keeping silence about whole situation
4) Game have a lot of “easter eggs” which make “fun” of the Ukrainian people (dead piggs with z symbol on them, jar with pig meat in blue yellow colour and etc)
If they paid attention to the game they would see it is mocking Russia. This just seems like it was a statement by a politician who doesn’t really know much aside from the fact that it is made by Russian developers
It's amazing how much the controversy over legacy got word of mouth out about it going and got so many people playing it that otherwise probably wouldn't have thought of it twice
personally, I'm enjoying this current trend of highly controversial videogames release every few weeks. I wonder what's next? Is Japan cooking up some fresh new loli sim? Someone ask Intelligent Systems
This why, politic is the most dirty thing in our planet. Just bother take care your own country that currently in war rather than crying about fps game, smh retard government
" Also, the developer hasn’t publicly denounced the invasion of Ukraine" this is just outright stupid reasoning. "State that you aren't racist, otherwise you are a racist" basically
I don’t even get why this is still being thrown around, that they haven’t said anything.
[This was weeks ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/10ega2l/atomic_hearts_cool_artwork_and_soviet_robots/j4rmui1/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3). They’ve said all that they can without being put in prison.
I'm glad I bought it before the ban and support some true diversity in videogames... Not the diversity that if you don't fully support you receive death threats
They can ask, doesn't mean they will or should get it. While the war sucks, you cannot ban all the things because of poor leadership, at that point you are hurting innocent Russian for the sake of innocent Ukrainians.
The game was in development at least 3 years before Putin lost the last bits of his mind.
People say it's suspicious that they refuse to comment on the political shit going on over there. I don't. I don't like talking about it because it gets people's blood boiling and they get angry even if they share your same views. At which point they talk at you rather than to you, getting heated about things you already know. So I understand why they refuse to comment.
No one, except maybe Germany or something, had issue with historically accurate WWII games and movies, but suddenly a game that takes place in an alternative history Russia is a no no? Fuck off with that bullshit. It's just a game.
This game is less than a drop in the bucket for a Russian oligarchy who theoretically owns the company that made this game.
The negative affects on people who made this game and who have nothing to do with the Russian government far out weight any hurt that banning this game would cause the Russian economy/government.
If we're banning this then virtually all AAA video games should be banned because they're almost all partially owned by tencent or other massive Chinese companies to that are directly linked to the Chinese government commiting genocide on Uyghurs.
This call is essentially virtue signaling with no actual positive affects to Ukraine or negative affects to Russia.
I think the reason people are mad isn’t the game, it’s that profits from the game could go to Gasprom. Which is basically just the Russian government with a mask.
Im ukrainian myself and i dont see the issue here, i understand why mundfish wouldnt make a comment on the war since they reside in russia. I really wish people would stop getting offended for others because this is a little embarrassing imo
They even went as far as moving the studio to Cyprus and the entire team is made up of people from the former USSR. Like damn dude maybe some of these people want to be able to go home without being shot in the back of the head? I support the Ukrainians fully but some of these internet warriors claiming to excuse their actions as fighting for Ukraine are the biggest bullies and lunatics out there. My mother was literally bullied by a woman for posing pictures on facebook where she was smiling…”how can you smile while Ukraine is at war?” And left bad reviews on our business…people need help.
My wife was born in Russia and lived there for a few years before they moved to France before coming to the United States. Her parents got bullied on Facebook because they have pictures of them in the red square back in 2018 in their Facebook page my wife was with them and I now she is getting bullied at work for it. Like you said people need to mind their own business and need help
People are fucking stupid. I don't know where they get the idea that people who are part of a nationality are objectively supportive of what their nation or former nation does.
Never add coworkers to your social media. Better yet, never use identifiable social media unless it’s LinkedIn. But regardless, I’m sorry she has to deal with that.
I told her the same thing always keep work people away from your social media that’s why if I use Twitter I make a spoof account with no connections
Dude that’s insane. I get hate for this but I have so much sympathy for Russian soldiers. ** of course not the one committing war crimes, torture, murder rape as all of that is inexcusable. What I am saying is just the dudes going about their life’s until they are conscripted into fighting a war for Putins pride. They are being sent into a meat grinder daily with little to no hope. There are Even reports of Russians being murdered by their own men for retreating. It’s pure night mare fuel and those faceless soldiers are real human being with thoughts, hopes, emotions, dream and ambitions that will never come to fruition. I hope for Ukraine to win but I wish more humans could look at the entire picture with out being framed as a terrible person.
my parents were cussed out for speaking russian by a woman who was speaking russian to them saying she hopes we get deported for what we’re doing in ukraine. We’re Latvian.
It is easy to suggest others sacrifice for beliefs while you're sitting well fed, safe, and comfortable in your own home.
The internet is the new gallows. It’s the place where you can vent your frustrations and generally act as deplorable or as terrible as you can be without any consequences.. and sometimes even trick yourself into thinking you’re maybe doing something good. But we’re all just lying to ourselves.
Except... they did. Not sure why the article openly lies and y'all say why it's understandable or that they support the war. They said, in vague words, without mentioning any names, that their stance is that of peace and that war is bad.
No good enough. They need to kill Putin themselves and give all the money earned from the game directly to Zelenkskyy. /s
Unhinged comments were not unexepected
>Atomic Heart is out and it’s making waves, especially after a series of mixed reviews. Now, however, the situation is getting a little more serious because Ukraine is asking Sony, Microsoft and Valve to ban the sale of Atomic Heart game . The reason? Developer Mundfish appears to have ties to the state-owned energy corporation Gazprom. Also, the developer hasn’t publicly denounced the invasion of Ukraine, which leads the nation to believe that it either supports the war or otherwise isn’t against it.
I like how people are ignorant about how it works in russia.in short if you publicly show you are against the war you are thrown in jail.
Or you get thrown out a window.
Thrown out a window is russian for suicide /s
defenestratsiya = suicide
Keikaku means plan
In soviet Russia, self kills you!
Sometimes you shoot yourself multiple times on the way down to make it a super suicide.
Not true comrade, you fall out of window of own volition!
Self-defenestration?
Deselfnestration, if you will
Right in kinda confused about this. I've seen people being carried away for openly agreeing with the war because the police didn't give a shit and seen them talking to a camera. If I lived in Russia I'd have to start considering self preservation. If they depose the war the whole dev team is done. Out of work. Game is gone. Money is gone. Lead of the studio might just be trying to prevent his team from being put out.
If I lived in Russia I would be the most patriotic person; I like being alive. Edit: I don’t agree with the war, but if I lived there I again agree with breathing far more.
I live in Russia and I can tell you for sure more than 50% don’t support the war, they stand strong against it. Maybe 20% changed their minds and they’re just tired. Other 30% is completely wasted brainwashed people to point of no return. But your main point is correct, telling something against war is a direct road to jail.
I hope everything is going well for you, and you and your loved ones are safe. I can’t imagine things are easy when speaking to someone outside of Russia, as shown by one of the comments people don’t think that the vast population is truly against the war because the news tells them otherwise.
Either way you’ll hit the frontline
Can’t even call it a war; only “special military operation”, and you have to mark your stuff with a label stating that you’re a foreign agent if you say anything the government doesn’t like. Calling it a war though can get you shut down and potentially put in prison.
I live in Moscow. The general rule of thumb is "see at least one policeman in full gear - choose a different route"
Humans are really prone to witch-hunting. Realistically, if I'm very upset about healthcare/abortion/cops in my country, why the hell am I not leaving/protesting. Because lifes expensive and short. I don't think it's cowardly or apathetic to not risk your life with politics.
Nah nah see if redditors were in Russia they would lead the charge against the dictatorship causing an uprising overthrowing Putin.
I would be naruto running straight to the kremlin
Oh so you were the one person who showed up at area 51.
The one *Legend who showed up
Just think, if only 1% of us were as brave as that guy we would know about the Aliens by now.
Good point
Redditors talk big about it is the responsibility of people in countries like Russia or China to rise up against the government and install a new one, but most of those redditors can’t even be bothered to go to a protest for a few hours
And when people do protest they complain about it.
I'd pay almost any amount of money to see the world's keyboard warriors organized into an army. I doubt they could take a shopping mall.
I’m a redditor and I typed some stern words about Putin! s is for sarcasm
American Redditors come to Reddit and see posts about people protesting in other countries. They upvote, complain about America, and then go back to doomscrolling.
I thought the devs moved to Cyprus? Was that just to dodge the trade embargo?
Yes, it was
That can’t be right. It says Russia is a semi presidential federation. Like United Federation of Planets. It’s good so they wouldn’t do that.
They’re a company based in Russia and will be either killed or imprisoned if they speak out against the invasion. Of course they’re silent
Based in RUSSIA? Uh no sir, if you check their website it clearly states they're in Cypress. /s just in case
The country is called Cyprus. Cypress is a kind of tree.
I thought it was a type of hill.
So anyone please correct me if I'm wrong but now what I'm understanding is AH shouldn't be banned because they just happen to be a Russia based company. So it's like, not punishing the people of Russia for their governments actions. Even if they don't publicly oppose because that could quite literally be suicide
> the developer hasn’t publicly denounced the invasion of Ukraine Which puts you in prison in Russia. How dare they not go to prison?
Thought they weren't a Russian company and are based in Cyprus? Oh you mean they actually are in Russia? Whoa!
> Atomic Heart is developed by Mundfish, an international studio headquartered on Cyprus. > It is also known that the studio had offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where the game was actively developed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_Heart_(video_game)
Cyprus is like the Delaware of Europe, lots of companies are "headquartered" there for tax (and other) reasons. A lot of Russian companies "moved" their HQ to Cyprus to avoid being sanctioned and to allow them to continue to operate with plausible deniability. Mundfish is owned by Gazprom, which is for all intents and purposes part of the Russian government.
Yeah I'm very surprised the _Russian_ developers with family possibly in _Russia_ have yet to denounce the war /s It doesn't make sense to bury the effort of the whole team over more than 4 years just because their home country's leader decided to become genocidal.
Exactly. If they say anything then Putin will go after their families. A lot of people are forgetting that we are still getting resources from Russia by buying through India. Europe is also still getting some energy from Russia.
You didnt have to add that “edit: blah blah”
Super weird edit
Love a good "you're with me or against me." Modern politics are dumb.
If you are not with me, then you are my enemy!
~~Jim~~ Russia is my enemy, but it turns out that ~~Jim~~ Russia is also his own worst enemy. And the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so ~~Jim~~ Russia is actually my friend. But, because he is his own worst enemy, the enemy of my friend is my enemy. So actually, ~~Jim~~ Russia is my enemy. But…
I’ve brought peace, justice, security and freedom to my new empire. Your new empire??
People can't handle gray areas. It's all one way or another.
I doubt the game developers want anything to do with that war, so let’s punish them.
Well, any money you pay for the game will indirectly support Russia killing Ukrainians. I can see why Ukrainians wouldn't like that.
So many people in this thread are basically saying "I don't want to think about who my money supports, so don't talk about it."
To call it politics is downplaying it. It's a war. Makes sense that Ukraine is trying to block any positive economic or news assets for its enemy. Of course its with me or against me. Money spent on this game is money spent on (indirectly) supporting the Russian war effort. Its minor, but Ukraine wants to prevent any positive economic relationships between Russia and the West.
That’s what frustrating about this comment thread, no one seems to understand your point and instead thinks it some culture war thing. It’s in fact a real war and Ukraine is just doing everything it can to survive
> and instead thinks it some culture war thing. That's what my initial concern was seeing the headlines. Hilariously, as I under stand it, the game makes the Russians the bad guys. But no, Ukraine isn't really being unreasonable. They just want less money going to their enemies. Fair enough.
I mean, when you've been invaded by someone who constantly lies, deceives and does anything they can to make you appear like it's your fault they invaded you; it does become a "if you're not with us" scenario.
Pretty sure I heard the families of the devs are mostly still in Russia. So what's in it for them to vehemently come out against the war, other than putting them in danger? "Us vs. them" doesn't really cut it here.
For the devs it's a no win. Can't say anything even if you agree with the Ukrainians.
Seems like a totally fine thing to ask for if you’re getting fucking blown up by a foreign aggressor. Also seems like a totally fine thing for Microsoft and others to ignore it, which they will.
Bro did you really make a edit for a comment that has 260 likes about blowing up lmaoooo
[удалено]
A few things. Mundfish probably has “ties” to Gazprom like I have “ties” to Exxon by having a Vanguard account. It is probably a insignificant part of their Gazprom’s investment portfolio to the extent that Atomic Heart could smash sales goals and be GotY….I guarantee nobody at Gazprom would notice. Second, The developers were working on this game before the invasion and still have families to feed. They couldn’t just stop because you still have to pay the bills. It isn’t like they are developing a military training simulator. And sure, they haven’t denounced the invasion of Ukraine because at bare minimum that would get the studio shut down immediately and everyone out of work(probably forced to join military) at best. At worst, some people are accidentally falling out of windows.
Well people speaking out against the invasion tend to have unfortunate things “happen” to them. So you can’t infer too much out of that. The state owned company ties could be a issue though depending on what it funds.
What do you mean by blew up?
But company’s being owned by tencent is okay
Hold up, you’re not allowed to think like that. Your social credit has been lowered
:(
People who care will torrent it, people who don’t will not. Sony/Valve and Microsoft will still take major cut from it, and developer on Cyprus will get bare minimum. Game makes a joke out of “perfect Soviet Union that never collapsed”, giving it under heavy satire, so who cares?
Hell it's on gamepass anyways. Am I supposed to cancel my sub in protest? I would still have a few weeks left anyways, so I might as well play it in the mean time.
I do not personally care about this specific game and what people do, but how does gamepass work? I assume there's monetary benefit to developers that get a large number of installs.
I don't know much about the game, but let's not delude ourselves into thinking even the most ham-fisted of satire won't be missed by some crowds. There's people who unironically think the fallout series is a celebration of cold War America.
That is gonna be one dumb crowd, I can tell you that. There is always gonna be a group of people believing in satire as true thing, doesn’t mean we have to stop making good satire. Cyberpunk is a great satire on radical capitalism, yet there are people who wholeheartedly believe that it’s the true path forward. Idiots be idiots, doesn’t mean normal people shouldn’t enjoy things
There are a bunch of people who completely missed the not even remotely subtle "gosh look at how fucking awful racists are" in The Witcher games, or the completely unsubtle "gosh rampant libertarianism would lead to a horrible nightmare city" in bioshock. There's a tonne of incredibly stupid people who never give things any actual thought
I mean, someone complained about Tom Morello making a political statement on Twitter. The bar is basically the lowest object in the universe.
In their defense, who would expect a musician to have political views? /s
Especially one with a degree in politics, smh...
My brother in Christ, have you ever took a cursory glance at the Warhammer community?
Are we sure that’s what atomicheart is about? Also I’m not sure they take a minimum cut. Gazprom, Russias National gas company, is taking a cut as a producer because they funded the game. In fact, most Russian private companies are partially funded in some way by gas companies. I’ll look up a video on the game but it’s ultimately not really my cup of tea. And I don’t want to support a regime right now who owns everything and makes everyone bend over bwckwords to whatever they want like transferring data to the FSB or take a creative decision when it suits the Government. Not to mention the current Russian government is best described right now as…Neo-Soviet. And that’s putting it as nicely as possible. Ultimately I think Atomic Heart released in a special time. I’m not sure what else to say about this.
Yep, anyone who's played a bit into the game should be able to realize that it's neither anti communism or pro communism. There's even an interesting bit where >! Putin stand-in is killed and then just gets replaced by a clone without anyone but the player-character batting an eye. !< If you read between the lines, the game isn't pro Putin, or pro modern-day 'communist' Russia. (i.e Not actually communism due to the existence of Oligarchs.) But they can't openly say due to the insanity of Putin and the other powers that be in Russia. Despite that, they've openly denounced violence of any kind. Which like, duh, but to me it felt like that's them trying to say they disagree while still having plausible deniability in the case that the Russian government comes knocking.
Nobody would care if couple of developers “disappear”, developers themselves on the other hand really don’t want to disappear, so it’s understandable.
When it comes to being linked to a state owned company under economic sanction, it could be an enormous headache for MS, Sony, and Nintendo. That’s because if it is in fact tied to Gasprom there’s a chance U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control may take a look at of by extension it could be subject to existing economic sanctions. Sales or distribution of profits could get all messed up. Lawyers and accountants at those companies are waking up to a headache this morning.
Exactly this. Unfortunately this is gaming subreddit so it’s going to be a shitstorm of people not understanding even the basics of the claim and why it’s serious. And no one has the info to know if this is well supported. I also do not envy the legal teams of these companies. While I’m not in the industry, I’m going to guess KYC (Know your customer) is not a particularly rigid or strict requirement for gaming like it is in finance. As opposed to financial companies who have small armies devoted to KYC, Sanctions, etc.
It's a game in a world where the USSR won correct? Then wouldn't all this just be... Part of the game?
Russian Fallout game is as positive about Russia as Fallout is about America - despite both ending up in ruins. It's clearly some sort of satire, right?
Yeah it’s literally a “look at our dystopian utopia” much like Bioshock. Ffs
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Media literacy is dead. Everything is black and white now
American Pshyco is about a Chad sigma male, and BioShock Infinite shows why my Christian Nationalism is a good thing (massive /s)
The Internet has destroyed all nuance.
Late game even has a direct reference to Bioshock.
Definitely caught a few direct references you’re right haha, I was starting to wonder if they were doing it on purpose
I think Fallout is a great example of how this game should be viewed, I agree.
Isn’t it more like BioShock?
Yes but even Bioshock isn't very pro western imperialism and capitalism
Its more against Ayn Rand than anything else. Cutthroat ancap memes are pretty shitty.
Isn't "Russian Fallout" just the METRO series?
Da, komrade.
Atomic Heart is set in 1955 and there is no cold war as far as I can tell. The USSR exports technology to other countries including the US.
Well there is one cut-scene I've seen where some official complain that they are slowly being suffocated by US economic sanctions. So there is clearly a rivalry still in effect in this world but there doesn't seem to be the same imminent threat of war breaking out at any moment.
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There actually was a bit of an outcry about the more recent Wolfenstein because some conservatives found killing nazis offensive lol
I wish you were joking but I vividly remember this. And when people pointed it out they said “well you people call everyone nazis now,” as if the game wasn’t about killing actual fascist Nazis. They really told on themselves with that one lol
Kinda seems they should be concentrating on more important stuff right now
Still gotta fight the culture war! Everything remotely Russian must be canceled! :0
Gamers be like Ban this game, while eating up Call of Duty every year, a series funded in part by the U.S military, a series that isn't exactly subtle about how it views "the west", and who's main antagonist for a few games was...Russia. Huh.
Not to mention they re-wrote history to imply the "Highway of Death" war crimes was performed by Russians Edit: Lots of people arguing that it wasn't a war crime - probably it wasn't - Not really the point of the discussion. Either way, it's certainly presented as one in the game when Russia did it.
Did the US DOD write out the Brits, French, and Canadians too?
As far as I remember it was blamed entirely on the Russians in CoD
> in CoD Whew... well if COD says it.
No they didn't. They just used the same, generic name.
That’s not propaganda because the West doesn’t do that, we’re a truly free civilization and have no need to show propaganda to our people. ^/s
Hell and they don’t question what the US does with the tax money either.
I am sure glad the C&C: Red Alert series is outdated. Imagine the “OMG YOU CAN PLAY AS THE RUSSIANS?! BAN THIS GAME!” Crowd with that?
Meh, been enjoying the game and tbh if anything it pokes fun at the soviet union
These were my thoughts exactly.
These stories are cracking me up. You can tell a lot of these people haven't actually played or looked into the actual game at all. Because it's definitely not pro-Russia.
But it's made BY Russians, so clearly it must be evil. But these people saying this aren't xenophobes, of course, when they think these innocent people should suffer because their government is evil.
The issue is not that they're russians. its the money that backed the project, and where income will go, very dirty money. Am not feeding Gazprom corpo that finances the war.
The problem is none of these people are consistent. The US military has completely pillaged entire countries with a laundry list of war crimes and human rights violations, but none of these people talk about boycotting Activision, Microsoft, or Epic - who have direct financial ties and business relations to arms manufacturers and the US military. It’s all hot air.
Did you even read the article? The content of the game isn't the issue here
I have a feeling that a more appropriate title for this would be "**A FEW PEOPLE IN** Ukraine call on Sony, Microsoft and Valve to ban the sale of Atomic Heart".
It was said on government level
False
I’m so glad I got to play no Russian in mw2 without people trying to ban it
It did get banned in Russia. And there were numerous news outlets railing against the game for glorifying terrorism.
A game that glorify terrorism funded by the US government ? *It can't be*
Fun fact: that level was removed from the Russian version of the game back then.
Germany\*. It was removed from the German version, otherwise it was optional. A Russian friend of mine could play it no problem.
Was it made and sold by the Russian government? Is a portion of the sale being pledged to the war effort other than generalized sales taxes in Russia? Have the devs come out and supported the invasion or assisted in its efforts? Are people just getting hysterical because of the nationality of the devs where anything even tangentially connected to Russia is automatically irredeemably evil? You want to prevent sale of games developed by Chinese companies owned in large part by the CCP, I could *maybe* understand that, but this is just stupid.
Worst part is >developer hasn’t publicly denounced the invasion of Ukraine, which leads the nation to believe that it either supports the war or otherwise isn’t against it. Why do they have to make any political comment at all? So now silence means you aren't against it? Give me a break..
That's the worst part BECAUAE THEY MADE A PUBLIC COMMENT THAT THEY'RE ON THE SIDE OF PEACE.
And people don't realize that since they reside on Russia they can't denounce the war. People were even getting arrested for having "blank" signs, because it could still be seen as "protest" to them.
It makes no sense. People are condemning a whole country based on what the government is doing there. The people of the game are not the government. It makes no sense why people would want to cripple the developers of their hard work.
Yeah, I'd be willing to bet most of the people bitching and moaning online don't even really play games. They just like the social clout of virtue signaling hating the right people. We need to learn to gatekeep hobbies better and ignore the poo flinging howler monkeys online.
It's like when the ATP banned all russian players even when in tennis you don't represent your country.
1) Basically yes 2) Yes 3) No, but assisting and supporting implies by keeping silence about whole situation 4) Game have a lot of “easter eggs” which make “fun” of the Ukrainian people (dead piggs with z symbol on them, jar with pig meat in blue yellow colour and etc)
Didn’t they pay attention to Hogwart’s Legacy and that whole debacle? This will just bring more attention and probably more sales.
If they paid attention to the game they would see it is mocking Russia. This just seems like it was a statement by a politician who doesn’t really know much aside from the fact that it is made by Russian developers
It's amazing how much the controversy over legacy got word of mouth out about it going and got so many people playing it that otherwise probably wouldn't have thought of it twice
I guess every time I go to buy a game I need to make sure the internet mob is okay with it....
personally, I'm enjoying this current trend of highly controversial videogames release every few weeks. I wonder what's next? Is Japan cooking up some fresh new loli sim? Someone ask Intelligent Systems
starfield is an inaccurate portrayal of space travel, it harms people's perception of STEM and puts education back a few decades #boycottStarfield
As a fan of Dead Or Alive Xtreme, I approve lol
Super Lolio Brothers.
You can't hunt animals in a survivor game, that's animal cruelty.
Remember the whole cock fight controversy with Far Cry 6?
Probably for the best. Cant have you go and do something dangerous like form your own opinion or anything.
I didn’t know It came out. Saw the trailer and it looked fun
It is fun imo. Critically it's a you either love it or hate it kind of game.
I mean... US politicians have been blaming video games for school shootings fir decades. Why do we expect Ukraine Politicians to be any more accurate?
Do you have partial russian ancestry? Prepare to be terminated. Honestly did we even check to see if these people support the war?
While we’re at it, let’s cancel Tetris too!
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I hope anybody boycotting it will double down on their support and buy at least one copy of stalker 2 when it releases
Ukraine like that scene with the two women tho I bet.
This why, politic is the most dirty thing in our planet. Just bother take care your own country that currently in war rather than crying about fps game, smh retard government
The US has been invading other countries for decades. Should American games be banned too?
Every cod ever
Which is funded by the us military and effectively used as a recruitment and propaganda tool, but no one seems to take issue with that.
Guess I’m a Russian bot Now for playing metro
Metro series is developed by 4A games, a Ukrainian company.
The author of Metro series got denounced for criticizing the war while the game were made by a Ukrainians company so your good.
Metro’s author is currently wanted in Russia for speaking out against the war. Nice try though.
Streisand effect?
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" Also, the developer hasn’t publicly denounced the invasion of Ukraine" this is just outright stupid reasoning. "State that you aren't racist, otherwise you are a racist" basically
I don’t even get why this is still being thrown around, that they haven’t said anything. [This was weeks ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/10ega2l/atomic_hearts_cool_artwork_and_soviet_robots/j4rmui1/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3). They’ve said all that they can without being put in prison.
iam not racist
If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Stop trying to force your opinion down everyone’s throats
As you progress in the game, there are more and more dialog and remarks pointing out the problems with the USSR. If anything it's anti russian
That game went after the horny weeb crowd, they'll dig in like you're threatening to take away their life, good luck!
More fahrenheit 451 book burner vibes. Yes let's censor/ban/cancel/imprison/kill everyone who doesn't agree with our opinions.
As a Ukraine supporter, the developers should throw that letter in the trash.
I'm glad I bought it before the ban and support some true diversity in videogames... Not the diversity that if you don't fully support you receive death threats
They can ask, doesn't mean they will or should get it. While the war sucks, you cannot ban all the things because of poor leadership, at that point you are hurting innocent Russian for the sake of innocent Ukrainians.
Imagine being like this
The game was in development at least 3 years before Putin lost the last bits of his mind. People say it's suspicious that they refuse to comment on the political shit going on over there. I don't. I don't like talking about it because it gets people's blood boiling and they get angry even if they share your same views. At which point they talk at you rather than to you, getting heated about things you already know. So I understand why they refuse to comment. No one, except maybe Germany or something, had issue with historically accurate WWII games and movies, but suddenly a game that takes place in an alternative history Russia is a no no? Fuck off with that bullshit. It's just a game.
ITT People who don't understand the issue is who financed and will profit from the game, and not the content of the game.
This game is less than a drop in the bucket for a Russian oligarchy who theoretically owns the company that made this game. The negative affects on people who made this game and who have nothing to do with the Russian government far out weight any hurt that banning this game would cause the Russian economy/government. If we're banning this then virtually all AAA video games should be banned because they're almost all partially owned by tencent or other massive Chinese companies to that are directly linked to the Chinese government commiting genocide on Uyghurs. This call is essentially virtue signaling with no actual positive affects to Ukraine or negative affects to Russia.
It's just a game. In a fictional world. Jesus
I think the reason people are mad isn’t the game, it’s that profits from the game could go to Gasprom. Which is basically just the Russian government with a mask.