Vlad Suglobov, the CEO of G5 Entertainment, has opened up about supporting Ukrainian employees, opening new offices in other countries, and his decision to not suspend selling games in Russia.
Like many ordinary people and other companies, G5 Entertainment wasn’t prepared for what happened on the night of February 24.
“We could have done more to prepare; we did some critical things, but we could have moved people out well in advance if we believed in this threat,” Suglobov told Swedish outlet Affärsvärlden. “This was a terrible mistake that is going to remain with me.”
Although G5 is headquartered in Sweden, it also has offices in Ukraine, Malta, Russia, and the US. According to Suglobov, the company’s studio in Kharkiv was its largest office by headcount.
Some of the company’s Ukrainian employees are now fleeing the country. Suglobov says that G5 will continue to support them and advance their future salaries while also making sure that all of them are safe in the first place.
The company is now also establishing new offices in Poland and Turkey, so that its employees could work in more safe spaces in the future. “For our Ukrainian colleagues, we basically told them their jobs are safe, they don’t need to worry about work (and yet many do!),” Suglobov said.
Despite many calls to remove G5’s games from Russia, the company’s CEO decided to not exit the market: “I thought about it, and for now my thinking is, I’d rather use their money (or whatever is left of it, realistically) to help our Ukrainian employees and Ukraine. This is less virtue-signaling and PR, but more doing, which is my preferred mode of action. However, there’s a lot going on in my head right now and we evaluate the situation one day at a time.”
Many international game companies have already suspended their operations in Russia and/or Belarus. The list includes CD Projekt, Bloober Team, Activision Blizzard, EA, Rockstar, and Ubisoft.