The war in ukraine is not only a field war, it is also a political and economic war with each country and business who must choose – or not – his camp. In support with the country invadedl’Ukraineand in response to its president Volodymyr Zelenskyfrom companies have declared carry out economic sanctionslike Sony with his last Game.
Ukraine: Sony takes a stand
This makes ten days since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the offensive on Ukraine. Since the beginning of the military operation, the world the world is divided between those who support Ukraine or Russia. Thus, many countries affirm their disagreement with the Russian offensive and withdraw their activities from the country in order to cut off the economy of the Russian country. Companies are also invited to withdraw from the territory in order to impose heavy sanctions. Among them, we can already mention the giant BP, Volvo, ExxonMobil or the gas giant Eni. But they are not the only ones, since others more focused on culture and entertainment have also announced sanctions against Russia, such as Sony.
In effect, many Russians were disappointed when they saw that the game Grand Touring 7 was not available on the Playstation Store. Even if Sony has not yet communicated on this subject, it is easy to imagine that it is the response of the Japanese giant to the militaristic decisions of Vladimir Putin. The game has been available worldwide since March 4, 2022., whether in physical or digital version. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had personally asked Sony Interactive Entertainment to withdraw from the Russian market. For the moment, Grand Touring 7 seems to be the only game affected by the shelving in the country. A decision which, if it does not directly impact the Ukrainian front, will have consequences on the Russian market if Sony decides to extend the block to other games, or even to the entire Playstation Storealthough this is unlikely at this time.
Other video game companies follow
Sony is not the first video game company to have answered the call of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He had also addressed his appeal to other leaders of the genre, such as Microsoft and Riot Games. The boss of League of Legends and Valuing thus stated that all income from his battle pass for Valorant, Legends of Runeterra, TFT and Wild Rift as well as money received from Bee Skins on LoL will be donated to humanitarian aid in Ukraine through three associations: International Medical Corps, Doctors Without Borders and Polish Red Cross. Others were quick to express their opinion through sanctions, such as Electronic Arts which stopped its sales in the country and withdrew the Russian teams from Fifa or CD Projekt Red which also removed its blinds and the Russian territory’s GoG platform. The Pokémon Company also donated $200,000 to GlobalGiving.to redirect these funds to support families affected by the crisis.
The recent invasion on Ukraine, our friends and neighbours, left us shocked and outraged.
In solidarity with all victims of this act of aggression, the CD PROJEKT Group has decided to support humanitarian aid efforts by donating 1 million PLN to the @PAH_org (1/2)
The recent invasion of Ukraine, our friends and neighbors, shocked and outraged us. In solidarity with all the victims of this act of aggression, the CD PROJEKT group has decided to support the humanitarian aid efforts by donating PLN 1 million to the association Polish Humanitarian Action (Polish humanitarian aid)
Thereby, the world of culture is mobilizing against Russia by imposing the maximum possible sanctions, and removing what is possible from the Russian-speaking market. It is difficult to know whether this will really have an impact on the war, but it is part of a policy of drying up the Russian economy. For the moment, Russian banks had anticipated most of these restrictionssuch as the exclusion of the European banking system, with Visa and Mastercard bank cards which have ceased to operate in the territorydeclaring this weekend to turn to China to print new bank cards using the UnionPay payment system, a service already available in 180 countries. The cinema also announced sanctions, and we prepared you an article about all the films that will not be released on Russian territory.