Mundfish studio never commented on the war in Ukraine and didn't condemn Russia either. Moreover, some internet enthusiasts found Paliy's connection to other Russian state institutions, like RusAl of Oleg Deripaska and sanctioned "systemically important" bank VTB. The studio raised investments from them in 2021. GEM Capital is a Russian fund founded by Anatoly Pali, who previously worked at Gazprom's subsidiary, Gazenergoset. The investors of the studio are Chinese Tencent and Russian GEM Capital and Gaijin Entertainment. If Atomic Heart is being developed with money that originated from sanctioned Russian businesses and banks "systemically important" to the Russian government, profits from the game could be directed to help the Russian government in its invasion of Ukraine. The money is going toward funding a war where innocent people are being slaughterd. But the rumors Mundfish is harvesting data and that its backed by Ex-Gazprom and i could go on. Oke this is maybe controversial, but we dont post anything about Hogwarts Legacy and this is understandable and for good reasons. ![]() Atomic Heart is a product of the state in the same way that their oil is.ĭetractors might also argue that the game would not exist without this funding from anti-ukrainian organisations, but I would ask why we would want to if that is the cost? No quality of entertainment is worth the price that the people in Ukraine are paying, nothing this game has to offer can ever be worth its price when its price contributes to the suffering of Ukrainian people. ![]() The least we can do is avoid supporting the Russian state. Mundfish benefit from being in bed with various organisations that are anti-ukraine and as a result Atomic Heart is an anti-ukranian game and so are its developers.ĭetractors might argue that they do not have a choice, and while their is some truth to that, the people in Ukraine also do not have a choice in that they are being uprooted from their homes and killed by the Russian state. They have actively been silencing people in their community that ask about these issues, that is not a passive or neutral but a deliberate active action. However, I will say that on this issue, it's clear that any success this game receives benefits the Russian state and Russian war efforts in Ukraine directly.Īdditionally, I would refute the claims that Mundfish are neutral in this. ![]() I also think it would be impossible to say if one or the other is more impactful. I think it's important not to pit social issues against each other like this. But then there's the debate on what impact those contracts have, so it's a very messy topic. Then again, Microsoft are quite active in bidding for those contracts, it's not a mistake or anything like that, and you can argue that they deliberately strategically themselves to create software and hardware for military use. That's not to say that Sony and Nintendo wouldn't do more work with the military given the opportunity though, just that Microsoft's position as a wider software company gives them more inherent value to the military. The US military still use windows XP and Microsoft still receive money from them the use of and support for that software. So if it turns out their audience cares about a particular social issue then the optics on their behavior around that can become important and adjust.īut relatedly, we could argue that because Microsoft have billions of dollars in military contracts (both now and historically), they're a lot more involved with any war and related atrocities than other games companies. ![]() They probably even have a plan in the event that they do receive major backlash from their community an apology alongside a donation to aid relief, or something like that already in mind.īig corporations don't inherently care about people but they do care about the perceptions of their brand. There's zero chance they don't have people who are aware of these risks. But because the partnership is already bought at paid for they would rather keep their head down and hope attention isn't drawn to it. But I also imagine that Microsoft have very capable teams analysing the social climate and their senior executives must have been warned of the risk associated with having Atomic Heart on gamepass. I imagine the deal was struck before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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