Following electronic arts (EA) announcements that it would remove Russian national teams and clubs from a series of gaming products such as FIFA 22, FIFA Mobile and FIFA Online, Western sanctions on the Russian gaming sector have intensified, even depriving Russian gamers of their game assets.
In the early morning of Beijing time on the 3rd, FIFA Games, the sports division of Electronic Arts (EA), issued a statement on Twitter, announcing that it would remove the Russian national team and clubs from a series of products such as FIFA 22, FIFA Mobile, and FIFA Online to show support for Ukraine.
"In line with our partners in FIFA and UEFA, EA's Sports division has launched procedures to remove the Russian national team and all Russian clubs from FIFA gaming products, including FIFA 22, FIFA Mobile and FIFA Online," the statement said. We are also actively evaluating relevant changes in other areas of the game. We will keep the (game) community informed of actions taken and would like to thank players for their patience during the update. ”
Reference News Network reported on March 3 that Russian online game players suddenly found that they could not complete payments on the world's famous digital game social platforms such as Sony, Nintendo and Steam using their home bank cards. Russian players complained that their applications would be rejected as soon as they tried to buy games on the Steam platform of the Russian Savings Bank and other bank cards in the country.
Sony and Nintendo's gaming platforms also rejected transactions using Russian bank cards.
Notably, this sanction could also affect "Russian players" in other parts of the world. Due to exchange rates and other factors, the price of buying products from game companies such as Steam in Russia was lower than in other regions, so there are also many gamers outside Russia who reduce the cost of games by registering and buying games in Russia.
Now, these players worry that the games they buy with real money will not be treated with lockdown.
This fear is not out of thin air. Earlier, Mykhailo Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine (Mikhailo Fedorov), launched a call on social media for crypto asset exchanges to freeze the accounts of all Russian users.
Subsequently, the game NFT trading market platform DMarket announced that it will freeze digital assets from users in Russia and Belarus, suspend new user registration in these regions, and all assets and skins remain in user accounts, but access to their use is currently restricted, and the Russian ruble will be removed from the platform.
DMarket's move was quickly noticed by Fedorov, who praised DMarket's approach on Twitter and said funds from frozen accounts could be donated to the war.
DMarket's decision and Fedorov's remarks sparked huge controversy. In the comments section, some netizens retorted Fedorov, saying, "This is disgusting, this is money stolen from innocent users, has nothing to do with the war, and runs counter to the overall philosophy of encryption and Web3." Another netizen accused DMarket of saying, "I don't think you know about crypto assets, are you proud of the centralization?" Stealing money from innocent people is not good at all. ”
Also affected were Russian and Belarusian esports players, who were told they could not participate in DOTA2 and CSGO-related events without making a statement.
GAMERS Galaxy, the organizer of the DOTA2 Dubai Invitational Tournament, said that if the VP teams from Russia do not make a public statement on the Russian-Ukrainian issue, they will disqualify the VP from the competition. GAMERS Galaxy will prevent VP teams from competing by declaring their players test positive for COVID-19.