Epic Games is the last major player in the video game industry to make his move against Russia due to the invasion ofUkraine. The company has posted a single tweet from their official account explaining that it will terminate all business relations with Russia as far as his games are concerned, including the hugely popular Fortnite.
Fortnite: block sales in Russia
Here is what the software house reported on Twitter: “Epic has stopped trading with Russia in our games in response to its invasion of Ukraine. We will not block access for the same reason that other communication tools remain online: the free world should keep all channels of dialogue open ”. A clear lineup therefore, with particular attention to the freedom of the media.
The logic is quite obvious: given that to interrupt the communication between the players within the country would not have much effect, stopping trade within them is a measure that affects Russia as a nation financially and directly.
Epic is stopping commerce with Russia in our games in response to its invasion of Ukraine. We’re not blocking access for the same reason other communication tools remain online: the free world should keep all lines of dialogue open.
— Epic Games Newsroom (@EpicNewsroom) March 5, 2022
This course of action is similar to that taken by Microsoft which stopped sales but did not shut down services within the country itself, probably for similar reasons.
At this point, the list of videogame companies that have announced some sort of action against Russia is very long, and there are few who have not taken a position. Microsoft, Sony, CDPR, Activision Blizzard, EA and now Epic they have all made statements or stopped sales to some degree. We haven’t heard anything from the likes of Ubisoft, Nintendo, Square Enix, Take-Two and Capcom, among others, yet.