Take-Two Interactive and Ubisoft have added to the growing list of companies in the sector whose positioning for Ukraine is translated into a suspension of their commercial activities in Russia. The groups of Strauss Zelnick and Yves Guillemot follow a movement initiated weekly by CD Projekt, Bloober Team, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.
The announcement of Take-Two, which also concerns Belarus, then intervenes that Rockstar Games is about to release the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions of Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, as detailed at the end of last weekend. It will be impossible for Russian and Belarus players to buy or install a Take-Two game until further notice, which includes other next outings like WWE 2K22 and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands.
“After mature reflection, we decided last week to stop for the moment new sales, facilities and marketing support on all our labels in Russia and Belarus,” Take-Two confirmed. As the Games Industry website, Grand Theft Auto V is the third most played game in Russia, beaten only by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 (Russia playing mainly on PC).
Ubisoft, which has two studios in Ukraine, was on the early days of the country’s invasion by explaining to do its best to put its salaries safely, providing them with their salary in advance and organizing accommodation solutions with neighboring countries. On Monday, the French publisher added to these measures the suspension of sales of its products in Russia.
If Nintendo did not take a public position, they add that the Nintendo Eshop Russian came into maintenance last Friday, officially because of a problem from the provider in charge of rubles. For its part, Sony has announced a donation of $ 2 million to humanitarian organizations while PlayStation canceled the launch of Gran Turismo 7 in Russia at the last moment.