AIN.capital also cites a legal address in Russia in the policy. AIN.capital, a site focused on Central and Eastern European tech news, cited Mundfish's Russian store website privacy policy in January as disclosing that user data could be transferred to Russian state authorities, including the tax office and FSB, Russia's modern state security agency. The developer, Mundfish, cites Cyprus as its international headquarters but has previously shown off its Russia-based offices in a video tour. Mundfish's CEO once worked as a creative director for, VK's original entity. VK Group and VKontakte, the most popular social network in Russia, are majority owned by the media arm of energy giant Gazprom, which is majority-owned by the Russian state. The game is available in Russia exclusively through VK Play, an arm of the VK Group, which is run by a Vladimir Putin ally and son of a former prime minister. How Russian is Atomic Heart’s developer, really?Īt a minimum, Atomic Heart is not entirely distanced from Russia or inactive in its highly state-influenced economy. Here's what has been reported so far and some insight into the game and its themes. There's a lot to unpack, and some of it involves entities that are inherently difficult to pry into. Atomic Heart is currently for sale on the Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam (PC) marketplaces. In March 2022, every major console abandoned the country, and major developers halted operations and sales, following direct appeals by Ukrainian authorities. Russia's invasion of Ukraine all but ended the international game industry's presence in that country. "We would also like to emphasize for the Western audience that the developers of the game did not come out with a public statement condemning the Putin regime" and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Deputy Minister Oleksandr Bornyakov said in the statement. The Ministry also cites "media reports" regarding development funds coming from Russian enterprises and banks under sanction and "systematically important for the Russian government" (according to Google translation). Ukraine's Digital Ministry has said it will ask Steam, Microsoft, and Sony to remove Atomic Heart from their gaming platforms in Ukraine, and possibly elsewhere, pointing to its retro-Communist aesthetic and reported "Russian roots."Īs reported by the Ukrainian tech news/job site Dev.ua ( Google translation), Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation (which also provided a statement in English to PCGamesN) writes that Atomic Heart "has Russian roots and romanticizes communist ideology and the Soviet Union." The Ministry cites the game's "toxicity," "potential data collection of users," and use of funds from the game "to conduct a war against Ukraine." The statement asks for an outright ban on the game in Ukraine but calls on other countries to consider "limiting distribution" of the game. Mundfish / Focus Entertainment reader comments 532 with
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