Square Enix has seemingly suspended game sales in Russia, with its titles becoming unavailable on Steam in the country. The company has also made a donation for humanitarian aid to Ukrainian refugees.

As the exodus of tech companies from Russia continues, global developers continue to suspend their operations in accordance with sanctions and in support of Ukraine. Almost 7000 apps have already been removed from the country’s App Store.

Kyiv-based developer GSC Game World has shared two updates on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. First, it changed the game’s subtitle in accordance with Ukrainian language rules. Second, the studio decided to prohibit sales of the upcoming title in Russia.

Following Meta’s decision to allow hate speech towards the Russian military on its platforms, the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office has called for a ban on Instagram, with the company being recognized as an “extremist organization.”

The exodus of game companies from Russia and / or Belarus continues as Humble Bundle, Niantic, Plarium, and SEGA remove their titles from these countries.

Amid global support for Ukraine, more companies are suspending their business operations in Russia. Sony, Nintendo, WarnerMedia, and some other studios have joined the ongoing exodus.

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.

The list of companies suspending or stopping their business in Russia is getting bigger. Microsoft has announced its decision to stop all new sales of its products and services in the country while also committing to helping and supporting Ukraine.

Google has joined a broad range of companies that have limited or banned their services in Russia. The company decided to stop selling in the country, with restrictions covering search, YouTube, and publishing partners.

Some members of the GitHub community have been asking to ban Russian users for a week now. The platform, however, has decided to not restrict any developers, adding that it will still continue to examine government mandates. 

MY.GAMES Business Development Manager Dmitriy Byshonkov has shared some insights for international developers on how to sell and market video games in Russia. He detailed the importance of localization, regional pricing, and local marketing channels.

The Russian Orthodox Church has written a special prayer service for people who are obsessed with video games. However, it still must be approved by the Holy Synod, Russia’s Ecclesiastical governing body.

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal agency responsible for censorship in media, has offered to develop an AI-based solution to search for banned content in video games. However, this initiative caused debate among industry professionals.

Apple has filed a lawsuit against Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), which opened a case against the company in October over its refusal to let developers use third-party payment methods.

The distribution of cheating software is a persistent problem faced by the video games industry. Despite the global nature of the challenge, most infringing torrent indexes are either operated/hosted from Russia or use Russian reverse proxies. In this article, Alena Kuzmina, a lawyer at Semenov&Pevzner, discusses the legal grounds on which the potential software cheating may be challenged under the Russian law.

Annapurna. Versus Evil. Raw Fury. Is working with these publishers a dream come true for indie devs? Alex Goodwin, the solo creator of much anticipated title Selfloss, has been there, done that. In an interview with Game World Observer, he shares his experience and warns fellow creators to curb their enthusiasm.

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has opened a case against Apple as the company still doesn’t let developers add links to alternative payment methods outside the App Store.

This weekend, Moscow-based Team Spirit became the first Eastern European team to win the Dota 2 world championship since 2011.

MY.GAMES Venture Capital, the investment arm of MY.GAMES, has invested in three studios: VOX, Tworogue Games, and Wideview Games. The total investments in the three studios amounted to around $3 million. In all three deals, MGVC acquired minority stakes in the studios with options to purchase control later.