JAKARTA – Activision Blizzard and Epic have stopped selling the game in Russia. Activision Blizzard and Epic Games have joined the list of publishers suspending sales of their games in Russia due to the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
In a letter, Activision Blizzard shared the news of the suspension publicly on Friday, March 4. President and Chief Operating Officer Activision’s Daniel Alegre said the company would temporarily stop selling its games to Russian consumers. It will also temporarily stop offering in-game microtransactions to the same customers.
“Today, we are announcing the suspension of our new and in-game sales in Russia while this conflict continues, as well as other efforts to assist Ukraine,” Activision Blizzard wrote in a statement on @ATVI_AB.
We are committed to helping those impacted by the terrifying violence taking place in Ukraine.
Today, we are announcing the suspension of new sales of and in our games in Russia while this conflict continues, as well as other efforts to assist Ukraine. https://t.co/wG9tQMNzjK
— Activision Blizzard (@ATVI_AB) March 5, 2022
One day after Activision’s announcement, Epic Games also reported that it would stop domestic transactions.
“Epic stopped trading with Russia in our games in response to its invasion of Ukraine. We don’t block access for the same reason other communication tools stay online: the free world must keep all lines of dialogue open,” the company said.
Epic is stopping commerce with Russia in our games in response to its invasion of Ukraine. We’re not blocking access for the same reason other communication tools remain online: the free world should keep all lines of dialogue open.
— Epic Games Newsroom (@EpicNewsroom) March 5, 2022
In discontinuing sales to Russia, Activision and Epic joined companies such as Microsoft and CD Projekt RED that had previously stopped selling.
According to the 2021 statistical forecast, Russia was a country with an industrial revenue of about US$2.7 billion or around Rp. 37.8 trillion that year, and was the eighth largest market for video games.
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