2023-04-17 00:00:17
When Russia started a war against its neighbor Ukraine last year, almost every major video game company decided to take action against the former. This included Nintendo as they stopped all product shipments to the country (something we reported ), but also said they would stay in the country for the “foreseeable future ยป.
Last week, Eurogamer discovered that it was still possible to buy Metroid Prime Remastered in Russia through the company called Achivka. Although parallel imports are difficult for a company to control, it was put in place by Nintendo Russia boss Yasha Haddazhi. This attracted a lot of not-too-charming attention for Nintendo, so Nintendo decided to take action.
In a statement to EurogamerNintendo now explains that they will “reduce their operations” in Russia:
In early 2022, Nintendo suspended shipping products to Russia and placed the Nintendo eShop under maintenance following the suspension of Russian ruble transactions by the payment provider. Following this, and due to the economic outlook, Nintendo of Europe decided to end the activities of its Russian subsidiary.
We will maintain a minimal presence in Russia to complete the liquidation process and meet legal, contractual and administrative requirements. The Moscow employees received individual salaries, and their contracts ended by mutual agreement and with our appreciation for their efforts.
Nintendo also writes that they have “no involvement in parallel import activities in Russia”. We’ll be keeping an eye on this story to see if it develops further or if Nintendo is serious this time around.
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