The gaming world unites to support Ukraine as developers there emphasise the horrors they are seeing at home
Last updated: 06/03/22
Studios such as Frogwares and GSC Gameworld have been providing fans with harrowing updates on twitter this week in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion.
While gaming is no doubt the last thing most people have in mind right now, it is heartening to see the industry look out for each other in these dire circumstances. Last week most of us woke up to the most unthinkable news. However, while it was just news to us, some people are living the nightmare, trying to give people on the outside an idea of what is going on.
Ukrainian game studios have been providing fans with all too real updates of what is going on in their home country. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shocked the world as most of us watched on helplessly or refreshed twitter 1000 times per hour for any news. Scenes we haven’t seen in Europe since World War Two have been appearing on our TV screens most of the week but it is the people based there who are giving us an even clearer picture of the devastation.
Frogwares, the team behind the beloved Sherlock Holmes games tweeted this surreal update: “ The team is now spread throughout Ukraine. Pinned under bombs, with tanks and mechanized artillery by their windows, in just 3 days. This is the end of the week, but not the end of the war.”
4A Games, the studio behind the classic Metro titles also posted a tweet along with ways to help Ukrainians, saying: “ There are no simple words to convey the horrors that happen in Ukraine at this very moment, in a country that is home to so many of us. None of us had thought that the world of the 21st century can get to the borderline beyond which our game scenarios start to resemble reality.” A viscerally reality as over 15,000 people take cover in the Metro stations below Kyiv that no doubt inspired 4A’s games.
GSC Gameworld, creators of S.T.A.L.K.E.R have also posted similar messages on twitter along with confirmation of S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2’s delay. The studio defiantly saying development will begin again “after the victory".
While these studios showing such extraordinary endurance is great news, the response from other studios has been heart-warming. Starting close to home in the neighbouring Poland, studios have stepped up to offer their help. Not only did CD Projekt Red donate 1 million PLN (£181k), they have banned their platform GOG as well as their games from all Russian and Belarusian territories. Fellow Polish studios 11 Bit and Techland made similar contributions, the later also donating 1 million PLN. 11 Bit studios, creators of anti-war game “This war of mine” donated all proceeds from their first week of DLC sales to the Ukrainian Red Cross. The sum believed to total £520k.
However, it’s not just studios in neighbouring countries who are helping. Bungie decided to donate the first 48 hours of their Games2Give drive to the cause, which most of the Ukrainian studios I just mentioned responded to with thanks. EA has also followed suit by removing all Russian teams from FIFA 22 & NHL.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine has called for even harsher sanctions on the Russian market by urging Microsoft and PlayStation to stop selling their products in Russia completely. Now, while that is no doubt on the table, it is good to see so many lining up to help “rival” studios of their own accord, in a time when Ukraine needs every bit of help it can get.
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