The full-scale invasion led many game development companies to sever ties with Russia: closing representative offices, laying off employees, and halting game sales in the aggressor country. However, some companies have altered their stance nearly three years into the invasion.

We investigated the current involvement of prominent game development studios with Russia, examining whether companies are re-entering the Russian market, the availability of job openings for Russian citizens, and the policies global marketplaces are implementing for Russian publishers.

Censorship in chats, promises of relocation assistance, and Russian employees. How the leading Ukrainian game development companies reacted to the Russian invasion

G5 Entertainment AB

Exit from the Russian market: 2022

Return to the Russian market: 2023

“A year and a half ago, we disabled updates and downloads of our games in Russia. The reality is that the Russian market has grown in dollar terms since then,” stated Vlad Suglobov, CEO of G5 Entertainment AB, in a letter to employees. The letter was published by GameDev DOU in 2023.

Suglobov added that he decided to reintroduce G5’s games in Russia to stabilize the company financially. At the start of the full-scale invasion in Ukraine, G5 noted that Russia had never been a primary market focus compared to the international market, where the US accounted for 60% of sales.

Founded by Russians Vlad Suglobov, Alik Tabunov, and Sergey Shultz, G5 has operated since 2001 and established a Ukrainian office in 2008. Although the number of Ukrainian employees at G5 has declined in recent years, the company — known primarily for its mobile games — has consistently ranked among Ukraine’s top ten game dev employers, currently holding the seventh position.

Since the invasion began, G5 reported supporting Ukrainian employees by offering paid vacations, financial aid, and relocation assistance.

At the same time, a former company employee complained on the DOU forum about poorly organized relocation efforts, the removal of messages about the war from corporate chats, and higher compensation for Russian employees than for Ukrainian ones.

In a comment to DOU, G5 representatives denied any such censorship in the chats. They also revealed the amount of money spent on supporting Ukrainian employees. According to them, this figure is nearly a million dollars and represents “much higher” costs than those for assisting Russian employees.

Like Playrix, G5 Games opened an office in Kazakhstan in 2022 and updated its relocation program: employees were offered relocation to countries where the company operates. The company’s website lists openings for remote work available worldwide.

The company’s Russian LLC, G5 MARKETING SERVICES RUS, continues to operate, and in 2023, G5 paid taxes in Russia.

According to an investigation by NGL.media, G5 Entertainment has at least two operating legal entities in Russia — G5 Holding Rus and G5 Marketing Services Rus (the latter is shown in the screenshot above), both registered to the Swedish G5 Entertainment AB. Despite stating its withdrawal from Russia, the total net income of these two Russian companies in 2022 was 41.7 million rubles.

In the first year of the full-scale invasion, G5 Entertainment became a resident of Diia.City.

NGL.media asked the Ministry of Digital Transformation how companies controlled by Russians and Belarusians could become residents of Diia.City. The Ministry explained that it had not found “sufficient links with the ‘aggressor country’” in the companies mentioned in the investigation, including G5 Entertainment. Russian owners are also not the final grounds for refusing residency, according to the Ministry’s comments.

AB Games, one of Ukraine’s top 25 game developers, condemned its publisher G5 Entertainment’s decision to return to the Russian market. AB Games noted that in the first months of the full-scale invasion, Hidden City was removed from the Russian and Belarusian websites by agreement with the publisher and will not be returned. In a comment to dev.ua, AB Games said they do not receive any revenue from the Russian and Belarusian markets.

Playrix

Exit from the Russian market: 2022

Losses: The company’s annual revenue in 2022 was $2 billion, and in 2023 — $2.38 billion. For Playrix, the Russian market was the second largest after the US in terms of game downloads (15% of all downloads), and profits from Russia ranged from 7% to 40% (at least $190 million).

According to the DOU ranking, Playrix is the largest game development studio in Ukraine in terms of employee count. The company was founded in 2004 in Russia by Igor and Dmitri Bukhman, who now live in London. After the full-scale invasion, the Bukhmans asked the American office of Forbes to list them as Israeli citizens in publications. YouControl also notes that the Bukhmans are Israeli citizens and that Playrix Holdings Limited is registered in Cyprus.

A Forbes article published at the end of March 2022 says that the Bukhmans sent Ukrainian Playrix employees on paid vacation and opened hotlines for evacuation. Before Russia’s war in Ukraine, the company employed almost 1,500 Ukrainians; now, it has fewer than a thousand.

Also, in the first two days after the invasion began, all four thousand employees, including 1,500 Russians, received their salaries for the month. Payments to Russian citizens were justified as support for those who “suffered from the collapse of the ruble.”

In the same interview, Igor Bukhman stated that the company would not leave the Russian market. However, in October of the same year, Playrix announced its withdrawal from Russia and Belarus and the relocation of part of the team from these countries. This announcement followed waves of layoffs in the Russian and Belarusian offices.

The reluctance to leave the Russian market is easy to explain. According to the analytical platform AppAnnie, the Russian market was Playrix’s second largest after the US market: 15% of all game downloads, with a profit margin of 7% to 40%.

In the first days after February 24, the company censored corporate chats, deleting messages related to politics, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Buckhmans explained this by fearing that it would stir up conflicts “that would not make anyone feel better.”

The founders of Playrix emphasized that they did not prohibit employees from expressing their opinions. However, a Playrix employee told AIN anonymously that the employees were not allowed to express their views, and comments were deleted.

In 2023, the company explained in a comment to AIN that it had almost left the Belarus and Russian markets. The Belarus office was transferred to a new owner and renamed BRIG Studio (БРИГ Студио). In 2024, the company liquidated its Russian LLCs, PLAYRIX DMR (ПЛЕЙРИКС ДМР) and PERFECT PLAY (ПЁРФЕКТ ПЛЭЙ).

The Russian LLC ITDEV LAB, however, remains operational.

Meanwhile, according to YouControl, Playrix’s Ukrainian LLC was liquidated this year.

Despite its exit from the Russian market, Playrix has not canceled hiring in Russia, although it does not openly say so. The Russian job search portal hh.ru still lists new openings labeled “in other regions.”

The job description mentions the possibility of remote work “from any location in the world.”

Simultaneously, with the withdrawal from the Russian Federation and Belarus, the company opened an office in Kazakhstan.

AIN has contacted the company for comment, but it has not responded. If Playrix provides comments, they will be published.

Wargaming

Exit from the Russian and Belarusian markets: April 2022

Losses: $250 million

Return to the Russian market: no plans

Before the full-scale invasion, Wargaming’s largest office, which employed about two thousand specialists, was located in Belarus. The developer of computer games, primarily free-to-play MMOs, also had offices in Ukraine and Russia.

Wargaming left the Russian and Belarusian markets in the first months of the full-scale invasion. In an interview with AIN, the company’s CFO, Andrew Tinney, noted that since March 31, 2022, Wargaming has neither invested in nor profited from the Russian market.

“When we exited the Russian and Belarusian markets, our business was transferred to local management at zero cost, without debt and any repayment terms. The board of directors made this decision in March 2022, so we have no plans to return the business to these countries,” the company commented.

Lesta Games (World of Warships), a former subsidiary of Wargaming.net, continues operating in Russia but is no longer affiliated with Wargaming as of April 4, 2022.

The company is recruiting employees within the Russian Federation; relevant openings can be found on Russian job search sites.

Wargaming does not consider candidates with Russian and Belarusian citizenship.

“As a global company, we comply with the laws of the countries in which we operate. This also applies to candidates’ citizenship. When hiring, we look at the candidates’ match to positions, skills, experience, and values. Of course, we do not hire in Russia and Belarus, as we have no business or offices there. In Ukraine, we also do not hire citizens of these countries,” the company explained in a comment to AIN.

Ubisoft.

Exit from the Russian market: 2022

Losses: in 2022, the company’s revenue in Russia amounted to 311 million rubles (almost $318,000 at the current exchange rate).

The French game developer Ubisoft also announced its decision to stop operations in Russia due to the full-scale war. The company has a representative office in Ukraine and ranks third in terms of the number of Ukrainian specialists.

Ubisoft’s Russian social media accounts, including its Vkontakte profile, stopped posting just days before the full-scale invasion, with the last posts dated February 21, 2022.

In the first year of the invasion, the company also ceased selling games in Russia. Restrictions remain for the Russian region: Russia’s largest financial magazine has published guides on “workarounds” for purchasing games like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Watch Dogs on PC.

During this period, the company also announced the development of a Ukrainian version of its store with prices in hryvnia. However, the XDefiant shooter was the first — and possibly the last — Ubisoft project with Ukrainian localization. According to Olga Sendziuk, director of Ubisoft Ukraine, a “very small” number of players chose the Ukrainian language, while localization required significant resources.

At the same time, Ubisoft has not yet liquidated Ubisoft Games (Юбисофт Игры) in Russia, though it reported no profit in the country in 2023.

Despite no longer serving the Russian market, Ubisoft continues collaborating with Russians. In 2023, the official ambassador of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege was Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev. A promotional video featuring him was published on Ubisoft’s YouTube channel on August 25, 2024. The next day, Russia launched a massive air attack on Ukraine’s energy system — the largest since the full-scale invasion began — with Ukrainian air defense forces intercepting 102 missiles and 99 attack UAVs.

Among other major game development companies in Ukraine are:

  • Room 8 Group, which has supported Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion;

  • Plarium, which announced its withdrawal from Russia in 2022;

  • Gameloft, which stopped selling games in Russia and Belarus in the spring of 2022. In 2024, it finally liquidated its Russian legal entity.

“At that time, the Russian Federation and Belarus accounted for more than 3% of Gameloft’s global revenues,” the company commented to AIN, adding, “The withdrawal of games was a logical step, as almost 20% of our employees are Ukrainians. After the closure of our office in Russia and the termination of any business there, Russian employees in the region were laid off. Unfortunately, we do not see any possibility of resuming operations in Russia in the near future and do not plan to reconsider this decision at the moment.”

  • Pingle Game Studio, a Ukrainian company whose job descriptions state that they do not consider candidates from Russia;

  • Kevuru Games, which terminated cooperation with Russia in early 2022;

  • GSC Game World, a Ukrainian studio that canceled the sale of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in Russia and changed the subtitle’s name to a Ukrainian transliteration: instead of Heart of Chernobyl, it is Heart of Chornobyl. GSC Game World announced that it would not sell its other games in Russia, such as Heroes of Annihilated Empires, Cossacks, and the American Conquest series. The company announced this, among other things, on its Vkontakte profile, which is currently unavailable.

In another post — the last one on the Russian VK social media site — the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. group states that Russians cannot buy the game, regardless of whether they support or oppose Russia’s war against Ukraine. The post also explains how to return a pre-order.

AIN requested comments from GSC Game World but has not yet received a response. We will publish it if the company provides comments.

  • Fractured Byte, which is owned by Saber Interactive, a company with Russian roots that is part of the Swedish gaming holding company Embracer Group AB. This year, Embracer Group AB confirmed the partial sale of Saber Interactive together with Ukrainian studios 4A Games and Fractured Byte.

Advertising and sales of Russian games: the position of marketplaces

The digital video game distribution platform Steam has not officially ceased its operations in Russia, and Steam’s owner, Valve, has not made any official statements regarding it. Russian users can still access their game libraries and buy new games, albeit with certain restrictions.

Russians cannot buy games from some publishers on Steam, such as Electronic Arts, PlayStation, Activision, Ubisoft, and others, which have banned the sale of their products in Russia. The Epic Games Store operates similarly in Russia: the marketplace and purchases are available, except for products from publishers that do not sell games in Russia.

Additionally, it is not possible to pay for games on Steam from Russia using international bank cards, as Visa and Mastercard have stopped supporting these transactions due to sanctions. As a result, Russians are looking for alternative payment methods, such as topping up their wallets through the WebMoney exchange.

Steam has not imposed any restrictions on Russian developers. For example, the platform offers Atomic Heart, a game developed by the Russian studio Mundfish (officially registered in Cyprus), with investors from Gazprom. In Russia and Belarus, the game is published by VK Play, which is also co-owned by Gazprom.

Atomic Heart allows players to take on the role of a KGB officer and includes references mocking the killings of Ukrainians since the war began in 2014. The game won the Unique Visual Style award on Steam.

Andriy Chebankov, the author of the Anomalous Asylum channel, created a curator list on Steam called Bloody GameDev, which includes Ukrainian projects available in Russia. The “not recommended” section of the list features products whose developers may have ties to Russia or may have made controversial statements.

Other marketplaces, such as the PlayStation Store, Nintendo eShop, and GOG, have also disabled payment for games using Russian bank cards.

Blocking by Russia

In February 2024, Roskomnadzor added the Steam Community to its register of banned sites, citing the “dissemination of information on how to manufacture drugs.” In response, Steam complied by removing the content prohibited in Russia to avoid further blocking.

Additionally, the popular messaging app Discord was recently blocked in Russia. Roskomnadzor stated that access to Discord was “restricted due to violations of Russian legislation, which aims to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes, citizen recruitment for illegal activities, drug sales, and the posting of prohibited information.”

At the same time, Russian media reported that Discord removed “illegal content” at the request of the Russian authorities, but Roskomnadzor still sees no reason to unblock the messenger.

How the Russian game development market has changed due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine

In 2022, game development in Russia remained one of the most popular creative industries for employment. However, due to sanctions, the withdrawal of large companies, and the departure of employees, the gaming market in Russia shrank by 35% to 80% over the course of the year.

In 2023, the situation for Russians working in this field did not improve: companies cut jobs and reduced salaries. According to the Russian job search portal hh.ru, the number of game developer openings published in the first half of 2023 fell by 38% compared to the same period in 2022, but the number of resumes remains high. On average, 46 Russians applied for each game designer position.

At the same time, the Russian government is trying to support the industry. For instance, the gaming industry now enjoys the same tax benefits as the tech industry, with income tax exemptions until the end of 2024 and a VAT exemption on the transfer of exclusive rights to computer programs and databases listed in the unified register of Russian programs. Investments in domestic projects in Russia have also increased: In 2023, the Internet Development Institute invested nearly a billion rubles (over $10 million) in game development to support Russian projects.

One factor that may encourage game development companies to return to the Russian market is its large player base: Russia has 25 million gamers who spend more than five hours per week on video games. From January to March 2024, Russians spent 49 billion rubles (almost $455 million) on PC and console games.