Ukraine tackles the sale of a Russian video game
Government of Ukraine urges major video game distributors to withdraw Russian game Atomic Heart > of their shops. Ukraine's Vice President and Minister of Digital Transformation, Alex Bornyakov, will make the request to Sony, Microsoft and Valve, among others.
Released earlier this week but highly anticipated since 2018, while 'an early trailer featured a quirky and quirky visual style reminiscent of the classic Bioshock, Atomic Heartnow sows controversy. A year after Russia invaded Ukraine, some commentators argue that the first-person shooter set in a retro-futuristic Soviet universe is a Russian propaganda tool.
Despite the game portraying Soviet leaders as murderous despots, a promotional event held by the game developer in Russia last November was criticized for creating an atmosphere of support for Russia's expansionist regime, with quotes on the walls like “Glory to the Soviet Engineers!”.
— Dmitry Kinsky (@kins_ky) November 24, 2022
En Regarding the game's controversial content, a streamer notes the resemblance between a character in the game, who is a robot sex slave, and the leader of a Ukrainian political party.
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Straight up based the sex slave robots design off of Yulia Tymoshenko… The leader of the Ukrainian 'Batkivshchyna' political party pic.twitter.com/Y0hmef2xHB
— Dinka Kay | TENEBRIX (@DinkaKay) February 21, 2023
Last January, Mundfish, the studio behind the game, shared on Twitter its official position on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which presents itself as “pro peace” and “opposed to violence”. Bornyakov, for whom the game presents a “romanticized view of communism and the Soviet Union”, criticizes the studio for not directly “condemning Putin's regime”.
Guys, we have noted the questions surrounding where we, at Mundfish, stand. We want to assure you that Mundfish is a developer and studio with a global team focused on an innovative game and is undeniably a pro-peace organization against violence against people.
— @Mundfish #AtomicHeart (@mundfish) January 16, 2023
Links with the Russian government?
There is also doubt about the links between Mundfish and the Russian government. Mundfish would effectively be backed by a company founded by the deputy chief executive of Gazprom, a Russian state-owned energy company. The studio also does business with a distributor, VKPlay, which would also be controlled by Gazprom. However, there is no evidence to show that the game's profits will be affected by Russian government officials.
Scoring 77 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic, Atomic Heart disappoints some fans for its story, which reportedly doesn't live up to its visual presentation.
Available on Xbox's Game Pass, a collection-wide subscription service games, Atomic Heart has managed to overtake Hogwart's Legacy in terms of recent sales on Steam, the online video game retailer. line.
