Update #3 [Thu 3rd Mar, 2022 18:50 GMT]: The Pokémon Company has made the following statement, as well as a donation:
Update #2 [Thu 3rd Mar, 2022 14:45 GMT]: CD Projekt Red has now stated that it is ceasing the distribution of its titles in both Russia and Belarus.
Update #1 [Wed 2nd Mar, 2022 17:00 GMT]: In a statement released on Twitter, EA Sports has "initiated processes to remove the Russian national team and all Russian clubs from EA Sports FIFA products" in response to the escalating conflict in Ukraine:
Original Story [Fri 25th Feb, 2022 11:30 GMT]: Multiple video game studios and publishers are pledging their support to the people of Ukraine as Russia's invasion of its neighbour continues.
Polish company 11 bit Studios has announced that over the next seven days it will be donating all profits from its anti-war survival game This War of Mine to the Ukrainian Red Cross.
For the next week, "all profits from This War of Mine, all its DLCs, on all stores and all platforms will go to a special fund. A week from now, this money will be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross to directly support victims of war in Ukraine."
In a statement, the studio said:
Let this message resonate with everything you know about this war and how war kills people, devastates their lives and homes. Let us - players and developers together - do everything we can to support victims of war in Ukraine.
California-based indie publisher and developer Crytivo, which runs an online store for digital games, has announced a similar initiative:
In support of Ukraine, we will donate all profits from our store from this month (February) and next month (March) to the Ukrainian Red Cross to support victims. We will also be providing our employees in Ukraine paid leave until they can either get to safety or the situation improves enough to allow them to work in a safe environment.
Gameloft, which has offices in the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Lviv, has also posted a statement:
Witcher studio CD Projekt Red has added its voice, too:
Publisher RedDeer.games has announced that it is donating 100% of its profits from all sales of Cyber Protocol during March to a charity supporting Ukraine:
RedDeer.Games is an international studio where we share common values - respect for other people and international cooperation over divisions and cultural differences.
Today the eyes of the whole world are turned towards the armed conflict in Ukraine. War and aggression are an evil that we condemn. We are against them, no matter if they happen near us or on the other side of the globe. We've decided that 100% of profits from March sales of our "Cyber Protocol" game - the very first game of our studio we are proud of, will be donated to a foundation chosen together with the players to help the people of attacked and occupied Ukraine.
Furthermore, RedDeer has created 15 job offers for people of Ukraine migrating from their home country to Poland.
Crunching Koalas, the publisher of Ruiner and Project Warlock, has issued its own statement:
World of Tanks studio Wargaming has fired the game's creative director Sergey Burkatovskiy after publicly supporting Russia's invasion. In a statement (thanks, Eurogamer), the company said:
Sergey Burkatovskiy expressed his personal opinion on social media which categorically does not reflect the position of the company. He has been let go and is no longer at the company.
Belarus-based Wargaming employs hundreds of developers in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv (Belarus itself has pledged support to Russia's invasion).
Wargaming's Kyiv studio had made a donation of 30m hryvnia ($1m) to the Ukrainian Red Cross, and has also made changes to its online advertising, removing images of advancing tanks, for obvious reasons.
Advertising for Wargaming's titles is not running in Ukraine, with the company stating that "we believe it is inappropriate and insensitive to advertise our games while it is the centre of this conflict".
The Wargaming representative added:
At Wargaming, the safety and security of our employees is the top priority. Currently, all available company resources are helping and supporting our 550+ colleagues: providing them with alternate housing, early salary payments, additional funds to aid travel and relocation.
We are helping our employees' families to travel to neighbouring countries and organising accommodation for them. And lastly, today Wargaming Kyiv are donating $1 million to the Ukrainian Red Cross. These funds will be used to support Ukrainian hospitals and doctors, those citizens who have been displaced and other vital activities of the humanitarian organisation as is needed.
This story has been updated more than once to reflect the increase in support from the games industry.
Comments 63
Well that's pretty cool of them. Now if only Elden Ring had done that it might be enough to help the millions of people in trouble. Godspeed, Ukraine.
Nice that they’re doing this. Hope it helps.
Also Surprised the comments aren’t locked like on pushsquare. Let’s hope the lock won’t be needed down the road.
Isn't the Red Cross kinda corrupt? Like, I think they pocket too much money for themselves or something with their high executive fees? Similar to Susan G. Komen? (If I'm wrong on this, feel free to correct me with sources!)
At least the devs hearts are in the correct place.
My best hopes for Ukraine, may the innocent stay safe. Wishing them well is all I can do unfortunately...
EDIT: GOG is following 11 bit Studios example here, buying the game from GOG means all profits go to The Red Cross.
@Tourtus 1 second of googling would have told you that is fake news.
I'll definitely be picking up a copy today of This War of Mine. I know it isn't much but it's something. Truly heartbreaking what's going on and my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Ukraine.
Ukraine deserves the support because the stated reasons for the attack (Naziism in Ukraine carrying out genocide against Russians), are lies.
reminder not to feed the trolls before we press on making comments here (one of which was deleted from existence just seconds after this comment was made!)
God bless them.
@Klabanus Well from a quick search I found literal cut and paste articles.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/07/10/fact-check-american-red-cross-spending-claims-old-meme-false/5405797002/
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/13/fact-check-does-red-cross-really-spend-only-9-of-its-money-on-charity/112175424/
Like word for word copies, so that's suspicious.
According to Charity Navigator, Red Cross gives about 90% to it's actual services. So maybe they're good? I dunno, getting conflicting info...
This makes me so sad. I wish humans would stop fighting for power and control and just work together for once. We all on the same rock floating through space. If we could just unite peacefully we could actually accomplish big meaningful things. And maybe go down in history as something positive. Bless everyone affected by this. I'll be retreating to my safe little gaming world now.
@darkswabber We'll be keeping a close eye on the comments, needless to say.
@Tourtus wow usatoday and dispatch very reliable sources indeed.
I love this game. I own it already. Helping the civilians who strive to ensure their own and the survival of their loved ones is beyond doubt moral imperative.
(To hell with Putin, to hell with NATO)
@JokerCK I didn't claim they were reliable, I even said they were suspicious, and also, that's what "1 second of googling" got me.
I donated some money to Ukrainian charities that help the victims of war and there are quite a few that you can donate to and help them.
The western governments are not willing to help, but let's show them that the western people are with Ukraine.
@Tourtus you can’t always trust the articles that Google pushes or gets paid to push. Doing research is not as easy as “googling” for one second like @klabanus said. So take with a grain of salt.
@JGruns Excellent points! But I already know Google is untrustworthy for the reasons you stated and more.
My point in grabbing articles off of Google was to show that you don't always get a reliable source, or even the truth sometimes. It's why I hate being told to use Google.
@SoapMonki don’t despair! We MOSTLY don’t fight and do work together. I’ve read there is less war now than at any point in history. Collectively, we live longer than ever, healthier than ever, we are better educated, women are treated better. Not saying it’s perfect, there’s a long way to go yet. During disasters it’s always useful to look at the helpers, those that rush to do something, like this software dev for instance or those that give blood during a crisis.
@Rambler That's my point about high executive fees, the CEO position for Red Cross pays more than the position of the President of the United States according to some sources. Also, CEO is just one executive position at the Red Cross, who knows what the other executive positions are being paid... It's why I prefer volunteer work over throwing money at a charity, if I volunteer for something, I can see firsthand the good I myself and others are doing.
Oops, I think I already have the game on... pretty much everything? 😅 But seriously, it's an awesome initiative. The last few days have been quite ugly (except for the bravery and certain successes of the defenders), and I feel all the more bitter about it as my own country was dragged into this by a lunatic decrepit usurper - on the aggressor's side against our other longtime neighbour and hard times supporter, no less! 😓 Pray this madness may be over soon, with at least the fewest casualties possible and certainly without Ukraine being morphed into a shade of its former self - but then again, knowing Ukranians, it ultimately won't.
@darkswabber Russians themselves seem to be rare guests here (maybe unlike on Push Square? PlayStation does have more of a following in Russia), and jingoes are even less likely. Most people in all the headline countries are against this mess anyway, including ones who willingly risk detainment (or worse, during one) for making that known.
@Tourtus "It's why I prefer volunteer work over throwing money at a charity"
There's issue with this. Not everybody has the time to volunteer (let alone the desire to travel to an active warzone to help), but they may have money, and organisations also need money along side manpower. If everybody volunteered but provided no money, you wouldn't have the resources to action your steps.
If donating is all you can do, then I encourage it.
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This sucks and I feel awful for those affected by these events. Hope and pray that it doesn't get any worse from hereon out.
@Dtbahoney While I don't disagree with you, please keep the comments as civil as possible.
Russia being an imperialistic authoritarian nation ruled by powerhungry gremlins was no surprise. The large scale of the attack, however, did shock me. Hopefully Ukrainians manage to defend their country&culture and prevent it from turning into a puppet state for the wannabe tsar.
It certainly is not much, but Ukraine deserves all the help they can get.
@Tourtus Easy answer: The articles have the same author, and both publications are owned by the same company. It would be like if Nintendo Life, Push Square, and Pure Xbox had the same article about EA because they chose to share the same article rather than have three people write about the exact same thing. Either way, there's no conspiracy in that regard. That said, I really don't like that so many of the independent news sources are being bought out by big corporations, like the Washington Post and Amazon.
Edit: It's not Amazon that owns the Washington Post, but another one of Bezos' companies.
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Well... It's sad for me to see so many people can't see this conflict from the both sides - not only Ukraine's side, but Russia's side too. You didn't tried to see it through the eyes of the regular Russian civilian. It's scary. I'm living in Rostov-on-Don, a town that is in front of Ukraine. My colleagues at work said that they heard explosions. I didn't heard it by myself, thankfully. I don't want to imagine it. My friend is living close to the border of Ukraine. She's seen military cars and heard explosions with her family... Also, evacuation of people from Donetsk are incoming in Rostov-on-Don now, if I don't confuse. And in others towns too, probably. This conflict between Ukraine and Russia is really sharp now. It's deep-rooted and sharp as ever... While run for candidates of president of Ukraine, Zelenskiy said that he will develop good relationship ship with Russia. And he will be better president than Poroshenko... Zelenskiy was working an comedian and actor in Russia for some time. Strange, that after all of this, he changed his opinion very much... He even made discrimination laws about Russian language and Russians in Ukraine... And there goes even more nuances, that non-Russian or people who haven't lived in Russia. I'm not trying to protect my Homeland's honour or make Ukraine a culprit. I just want the people to be able to see this conflict through both Ukraine's and Russia's sides. Through civilians eyes. And only after this, jumping to conclusions and make decisions. Ukrainians and Russians do not want war. We are both brothers and sisters, and we want to live in peace. In Russia, there are a lot of Ukranians and descendants of Ukranians who are living in Russia a long time. And they can't see any sense in this conflict. That's all...
@Vyacheslav333 No one is blaming the Russian public. They are just scared for the Ukrainian people. The ones actually being invaded. The ones being killed, and the ones being forced to flee their homes. I don't think it's unreasonable that that's where people have placed most of their concern.
I'm not unique. There has to be more people than myself that wishes we could all gather up world leaders, put them in a room and explain we don't want any wars and they aren't coming out till they do their jobs and figure out how we all live together in peace.
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@Richnj
I dont fully agree with you. While I agree that some people in Russia clearly dont want this fight (as seen by the protests that sparked across the country), i do think partial blame has to be given to the citizens for repeatedly electing someone who keeps increasing his autocratic powers.
It reminded me of a discussion we had in Austria after the war. After WW2 we all said that it was the politicians and nazi leadership that caused us to join the war, the people didnt want this. It took several years for us to finally agree that while it was the politicians giving orders and signing aqay human rights, it was still the people that continuously enabled them to do what they did, and in fact we, collectively, were perfectly ok with what had happened. In my opinion the russian people (collectively not individually) are similarly responsible for what is happening right now.
And while I have heard about the laws the Ukraine was trying to pass, and agree that they are wrong, this does not change the fact that Russia invaded a sovereign country (arguably a second time since 2014). Two wrongs dont make a right.
I hope this comment does not get deleted. I tried writing it in a respectful tone to prompt a proper discussion without it devolving into an emotional mess. Hope it came across that way, if not im sure the moderators will act accordingly.
A good gesture. Fair play.
Nations are NOT 'their' people. Governments haven't represented the people since... well, forever. So it always surprises me how people can justify one nation's young brainwashed terrorist armed forces killing the people of another nation. Nobody is 'right' in war, nobody 'wins'. Time we all stop obeying those who claim they protect our human rights, but break the first one in every imaginable interpretation:
everyone is born free, free from any debt or guilt, and equal. No arbitrary division.
As soon as we're born, our parents sell us to slavers (without knowing it), who treat us as 'subjects' (inferiors), sell the prospect of us paying taxes (a debt we never made) on international markets to get loans to 'take care of us' (prepare us for becoming 'human resources' on the 'job market', wage slavery in other words), then declare us dead 'by accident'. They send us to kill or die if they have a conflict of interests among each other, whatever gives them the best odds of profit and power.
Russia, Europe, US, Korea, Cuba, Asia, Australia, Canada, Africa, it doesn't matter. They have a slightly different approach, but they're all the same in the end. And when they go to war, every 'good' 'humanitarian' reason they give you is a lie. It's money, resources, power.
I have forests in more than one country, and in Belgium where I'm born I've literally crawled through the mud at night to sneak large backpacks full of food into an armed police guarded refugee (basically concentration) camp. Just business as usual, while media complained that the refugees were 'profiteers' and 'luck seekers', never a word about how Belgian government provided weapons to the armies that destroyed these people's homes and killed their families. A few months later the entire lobby of arms dealers from Europe got together in Brussels to ensure tax paid money ended up in their pockets by the billions, and we the protestors were the criminals in the very limited media attention given to it (while a large part of the city looked like a war zone to protect the warlords in luxury suits, but nobody asked questions).
War does not decide who's right, only who's left. And those are the ones that write the history books with themselves as the saviors, the others as demons.
As Tolstoy wrote in 'war and peace': as long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.
Or Pythagoras: as long as man remains the ruthless destroyer of other life, they will not know health or peace. For as long as they massacre animals, they will massacre each other.
Or in terms more recognisable to gamers: war never changes.
People have called me crazy for many years, but I have been preparing for this, learning how to survive with nothing, and getting 'worthless' forest land to live in that has no military strategic value. I knew their peace was only a thin veil, a façade, a mask. Their hierarchical 'order' was the most chaotic construction, their 'tower of Babel', where the 'upper' class and the 'lower' life were totally disconnected. Ah well, good luck everyone, this ship is sinking fast, and whoever remains on board for too long will go down with it.
@GrailUK everything would be better if everyone ignored every order and rule imposed as 'law' (corporate policy of a nation, a corporation like any other, which we have no valid contract with as long as we don't vote and sign nothing with them, refuse everything, and just exercise our freedom and equality, birthrights of every living being). If we tell them to figure it out and then tell us what to do, they have us where they need us: obedient slaves who outsource responsibility to those who then socialise responsibility to not have to take it themselves. And nothing will change.
But you're definitely not alone in wanting peace and harmony, most of us in fact want that, whether together or in mutual understanding divided, 'live and let live'. Governments just have a LOT invested in war, and need their profits and power, the people are expendable.
@Shambo Yeah, my comment wasn't very well thought out lol, but my sentiment was on the money
@Shambo Its called War Complex people/government are so invested in Military Infrastructure they invest in nothing else. I think it was Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 becoming the corrupting forces in all countries that nothing will ever be the same. Has finally come to fruition.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/eisenhower001.asp
@NinChocolate In no way I am justifying Russians or denigrating Ukrainians.
But you need to see Bandera Readings, where C14 (Neo-nazi) leader Evegeniy Karas proudly speaks about how effective they had been in Euromaidan demonstrations.
I'd quote his words: "If not for us the whole event would have turned into Gay Parade". Also, C14 had been carrying out pogroms against Romani until these very recent years.
To Op: This comment is supposed to add/rectify to the facts around which the current tragic war revolves. No offense intended.
@Tourtus
No, the red Cross is not corrupt.
@Vyacheslav333
The World is scared.
Putin threatened Finland and Sweden with strong military and political Consequences, if they get closer Relationships with the NATO/OTAN.
Schweden would be a EU Country and i do not think that the western Nations would be so shy with their Response as they are not.
Also, China is looking to get Taiwan for Years, if they see that such Behaviour has no Consequences, they will get and invade Taiwan.
The US did promisse military Help.
Embargos will not happen against China, as the whole world is depending on the Stuff they buy there...
The arabian Nations will properly stay away from Russia, as they are competing with selling Ressources.
For them, a isolated Russia is a Lottery Win, as the West gets more depended on them.
Russia will be isolated also be more depended on China as a Partner.
China will have a high Influence on Russia now.
Africa has a economicly a high chinese Influence (the non arab States).
South America has some Nations, that have good Relations with Russia (Cuba, Venezuela).
The other South Asian States will fear China even more, because the Potential of an Invasion is now real.
Turkey (Erdogan) had searched Russian (Putins) Relationsships and is now in a inner Conflict and will be in a Conflict between its Relations in the Future (Nato/Putin).
The Potential of a World War 3 is pretty real.
We, the normal People, not depending of which Nation we are, be it Russian, German, French, Ucranian, Turkish... are fackt up brutally if this escaletes further.
War has ever been a Game about Power of political Class.
They talk about Patriotism, Nationalism and so on, only to let their People get killed in Conflicts.
I hope you'll stay unhurted and save.
@Richnj I'm talking more about volunteering for charities in a general sense, not in this specific situation. But you're correct about the money bit, that's important too.
@Rambler Agreed the Red Cross has done a lot of good, I just think it's kinda gross when the heads of a charities are giving themselves six figure salaries is all...
@eaglebob345 Thanks for taking the time to explain that, I appreciate it! Also agree on the media outlets all being bought up is bad.
It’s been very disturbing to see what’s transpired in this attack. People uprooted by conflict and fleeing war crimes and human rights abuses from another dictatorship, is very saddening to see again.
Pray for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏
I’ll pray for Ukraine as I have prayed for Palestine
FIFA fines Celtic for waving Palestine flag.
Now fifa is doing the opposite.
@UglyCasanova I always laugh when people suggest unreasonable things like this. This War of Mine is a game that has flatlined, so they can afford to do this, it isn't dozens of millions on the line. Besides, if you care so much, why don't you start with your own salary? Every little bit helps.
@Tourtus
I suppose with a very large organization, a salary that large is expected. I've worked in a non-profit organization myself and can say that there's still a small "business" side that is quite unavoidable. The amount of money being pocketed is really only proportional to the size of the organization; the people up top are still doing quite a lot of work themselves to keep this organization running.
https://twitter.com/Thunderfulgames/status/1498250256651374597
The Steamworld guys are getting in to it too. Their games are discounted across Switch, 3DS and Wii U.
This comment section is risky Nintendo Life. Already the comparisons to Gaza are being drawn, even though the situations are completely different.
Cool on the developers involved for trying to help the people of Ukraine. Everyone feeling the need to make a war in eastern Europe somehow about the Middle East, stop. Not every conflict is about the Middle East.
This is quite a nice thing to do.
That’s…
That’s about all I’ve got.
Stay safe Ukraine.
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I live in Poland (we share a border with Ukraine) and work as a game developer and I can tell you that the situation here is very stressful (obviously, nothing compared to Ukraine itself). These people need our help. Many people of my country are using their own resources to help, we buy food, supplies, many people use their own cars to get Ukrainians to safety. Many companies are donating to humanitarian aid as well. It is a time of great trial to whole Europe and, quite likely, the world itself.
@Savino - The stark difference in response is definitely worth a question. Hell, there is a lot of questions on the coverage of Ukraine itself that need answers. The whole "Ghost of Kyiv" thing for example.
Guessing there is far more political investment from other countries into Ukraine than into Somalia. Didn't see these pushes when Putin took Crimea, either.
I will pick up war of mine late. Not in the mood to play it right now as I am already following news and the stupidity of invasions and wars are all too known to me but I will play down the road and give money to a good cause
@Paraka That's true that this response is greater than ever before, including previous Crimea incident. Europe, and its leaders were always pushing for diplomatic response, which was simply not enough and now we see the effects of it. I deeply believe, however, that now we are past the turning point. EU has seen that just voicing outrage is not enough, that not standing up to aggression leads to escalation, even if not right away, then in few years time. It's seen exactly because russia has proved that these voices mean nothing to oppressors. It's because of this we are now facing a thread of 3rd world war, which is very likely to happen if any of NATO countries get involved, or China. On top of it all, we are all shown what a true leader is, and I mean the President of Ukraine Zelenskyy - the guy who is not afraid to stand up for his people, even when greatly outnumbered. Who did not abandon his people, even knowing its a huge risk for his own life. The world is changing
@YessMasster - With quite a few questions on he himself as well. I ain't taking any stance with this, as the fog of war applies to that of the digital space now too. Misinformation has been used quite diligently in times before, from all parties, to muck about what's really going on. We as bystanders most effected, cause we don't know what's really happening even from our own leadership. I mean, RU is leaving power and internet on in most these places, a strategy of all recent invasions would been stupid. Again questionable tactics.
It's easier, of course, to use history to pick a side. Putin has a record to take a stand against, easily. We in US also muddied the Ukrainian waters by ousting a Russian-friendly Poroshenko. Again, it's easier to say US good when Putin has a track record, but doesn't mean we should have meddled. We obviously had a gain when it came to installing our favored leadership regime.
This would be easy to do to other countries too, with the recent events of WW2 (in the grand stage of world history), if Germany started acting questionable, half the world over would be pretty easy to side against them. For obvious reason of their track record. Though harder to accept if someone like Canada would theoretically act the same way.
My friends, I'm a Russkie and I want and plead you all to know and understand: we don't want this war, our "amazing" leader is an old madman who holds all of us in fear. We're trying to hold peaceful protests but all of us are suppressed by P-N and his regime.
Everything is getting sanctioned off, we're being slowly cut off from the rest of the world every day, our currency is in the sh1tter and all of us are suffering from "his" actions.
Please don't blame us regular citizens, we stand with out brothers and sisters in Ukraine, we're all scared and there's a lot of us who say #NoWar , nobody wants suffering and we want Peace for everyone!
@Savino I don't know where is this picture from, but he is a jew, so i highly doubt he's confirmed to be a nazi and/or fascist.
@Itachi2099 Putin’s murderous crime organization as a stand-in for a government is very unfortunate. I hope for change in Russia for the Russian citizens.
@Savino Where did you get that image from? I've searched online and can't find anything about it. Looks to me like a simple photoshop some random posted on Twitter or elsewhere.
Edit - just noticed your update.
@Savino the claims Nazi’s are running Ukraine and are committing genocide are false and lies. Your post is misinformation.
@Savino "Sid you guys knew that african people are being stopped tp flee Ukraine on the borders?"
That's yet another piece of misinformation. They are not being stopped at UA-PL border, despite information about it surfacing here and there.
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