Indie studio Four Quarters has stated that Russian players can download Loop Hero from torrent trackers in case they can’t legally buy the game. The studio also refused to accept donations, urging people to help those in need instead .
On March 27, Four Quarters addressed the latest restrictions implemented by Valve and Nintendo in the wake of the ongoing Ukraine crisis.
Many game companies have already suspended their operations in Russia and / or Belarus. It also resulted in Russian players’ inability to buy Loop Hero as Steam and eShop stopped accepting payments from Russia.
“We don’t know when all these things will end. In these difficult times we can only help everyone raise the pirate flag (alongside VPN),” the studio wrote on its VK page, sharing a link to Loop Hero on RuTracker, the most popular (and currently banned) BitTorrent tracker in Russia.
Four Quarters noted that everyone who can’t legally buy its game right now can download it for free.
Some players asked if the studio considers accepting donations, so people could financially support the team. “We can handle it, thank you,” Four Quarters wrote. “If you have such an opportunity, you better take care of your relatives and friends.”
Loop Hero, developed by Russian indie studio Four Quarters and published by Devolver Digital, came out in March 2021. The roguelike RPG reached 500k units sold in the first week since its launch. By the end of 2021, the game surpassed 1 million copies sold on Steam.