Game industry unites behind call to cut off Russian market

Enlarge / Locked out. (credit: Sean Gladwell / Getty Images)

Last week, the Ukrainian government put out a public call to "all game development companies" to "temporarily block all Russian and Belorussian accounts" in response to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Now, after a slow start, many of the game industry's major players are heeding that call and cutting off new sales in the country.

French mega-publisher Ubisoft became the latest game company to take action against Russian customers Monday morning, telling Bloomberg that it is suspending its physical and digital sales" in the Russian market. Take-Two announced a similar move earlier in the morning, telling Mashable that it is stopping "new sales, installations, and marketing support" in Russia and Belarus, including purchases made through the Rockstar Game Launcher.

The new announcements come after a flurry of similar actions taken by large game publishers over the weekend. Activision Blizzard announced late Friday that it will be cutting off games sales and offering a two-to-one match on employee contributions to relief organizations operating in Ukraine.

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