Video Games

Ukraine officially asks Sony, Microsoft, and Valve to ban Atomic Heart

“Brand new level of Russian propaganda,” minister says

Marco Wutz

Ukraine officially asks Sony, Microsoft, and Valve to ban Atomic Heart
Ukraine officially asks Sony, Microsoft, and Valve to ban Atomic Heart /

Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation has officially asked Sony, Microsoft, and Valve to ban the sale of Atomic Heart on their platforms, after previously announcing this move. The country’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who also leads the Ministry of Digital Transformation, has sent letters to the leadership of all three companies, which he also publicly posted on Twitter.

“I do believe neither of these businesses support bloody regime, murders or romanticizing communism. Brand new level of Russian digital propaganda – using gaming industry,” the minister commented.

“According to information we have, the above-mentioned game, [was] developed by Russian studio Mundfish. As Mundfish has Russian management and offices, there is a potential risk that money raised from the purchase of the game will be transferred to Russia’s budget, so it will be used to fund war against Ukraine,” the letters read.

Fedorov urges the business leaders to “ban the selling” of this game on all their platforms and to stop promoting “symbols that [are] covered with blood”, also emphasizing that the development studio has not publicly expressed its position on the military actions of the Russian Federation. Asked about this, Mundfish merely gave a vague “pro-peace” statement and refused to condemn the Russian aggression.

Atomic Heart heavily features the Soviet Union, the KGB, and Russian military themes, which is obviously not going down well in Ukraine due to the ongoing illegal invasion of the country by the Russians, who have verifiably committed hundreds of war crimes in this process. Russia’s attack was launched on February 24, 2022.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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