The Government of Ukraine plans to petition Valve, Microsoft, and Sony to remove
Atomic Heart from digital stores in Ukraine, and will ask platform
holders to consider “limiting distribution” of the game in other countries. At
heart of the matter are the new first-person shooter's Russian roots. There are
allegations that sales of the game directly benefit the Russian government and
that the game is possibly being used to harvest user data. Ukrainian tech
website
Dev.au first reported on this, and
PCGamesN has a statement in English directly from the Ukraine
government:
“Regarding the situation with the release of the game Atomic
Heart, which has Russian roots and romanticises communist ideology and the
Soviet Union, The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine will send an
official letter to Sony, Microsoft, and Valve requesting a ban on selling
digital versions of this game in Ukraine,” says Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of
Digital Transformation, Alex Bornyakov.
“We also urge limiting the distribution of this game in other countries due to
its toxicity, potential data collection of users, and the potential use of money
raised from game purchases to conduct a war against Ukraine.”
“According to media reports, the game’s development was funded by Russian
enterprises,” the statement continues. “Therefore, we call for all users
worldwide to avoid this game. We also want to emphasise that the game developers
have not publicly condemned the Putin regime and the bloody war that Russia has
unleashed against Ukraine.”