CD Projekt has halted game sales in Russia and Belarus [Poll inside]

What, why xD
"We know that players in Russia and Belarus, individuals who have nothing to do with the invasion of Ukraine, will be impacted by this decision, but with this action we wish to further galvanize the global community to speak about what is going on in the heart of Europe."
So they know they're just punishing potential customers, but they still do it cause it's trendy? xD

I'm sure Putin has already bought the Cyberpunk and Witcher games :P

good but any money from Russia taken out of the country would maybe have been better

CDP might be shooting themselves in the foot because their idea of protest does nothing really, except single out Russian gamers who have nothing to do with their leader's invasion of the Ukraine. Besides, if they want CDP's games bad enough, there are many ways around it.

lol poor russians that didnt ask for war and just wanted to enjoy some games , its stupid to punish and hate on people cause their gov didnt see eye to eye with other gov

it's ridiculous that a company that advocated for gamers so easily rejected them simply because they are residents of countries of political conflict and have no direct relation to it. duplicity

I disagree because I myself enjoy games a lot and I'd like everyone to be able to enjoy them, but I'm also conflicted here because of how some of the residents act, so I can't really judge this publisher. There's a lot of russians that agree that their president needs to disappear and the war is dumb. At the same time, there's a lot who support their president no matter the cost and it's honestly disgusting, so in that sense, yeah, I understand and support CD Project Red. It's just unfortunate half of russians have to suffer for the other half that just don't care to educate themselves for the better. Even if they did however it's not like they can just go protest in the streets right now, because we know they get stopped immediately. There's no protests in Russia. It's a dictatorship so they have no voice.

This also affects the population sometimes because lets say someone makes a game based on the events transpiring today, it would be banned in Russia because Russia is afraid of losing face especially with it's own people. It's just how it goes, they must keep the people brainwashed that their current system works, which it doesn't. I remember there was this Taiwanese horror game that was bombarded by chinese negative reviews on steam and threats because they made fun of the Chinese president.
source just in case: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/dec/17/taiwanese-horror-game-pulled-from-sale-again-after-backlash-in-china

So just because at the end of the day these bad presidents feed their people only and only what they want and so easily cut off, and you can never see the other side of the fence, I actually think it's might be a good choice, better cut both sides of the fence, that way there's none, and if they're upset about it, hopefully people rise in the masses and it ends like it ended in Romania. Not that I'm there and understand the complexity of the whole situation, it is of course not so simple. But I don't think Putin's willing to nuke his own people. I do however think people should have availability to information, that including games as well, for entertainment or knowledge.

It would be more interesting if they refused to sell to anyone for a specified period of time, as a form of protest. I'm not sure if it would be strategically sound (on many of a number of fronts (political, financial, piratical, etc)), but definitely more interesting.

I just want to say thank you to all those who support us! It's hard to be in a situation where everyone is against you. We have to spend time protecting ourselves, not helping those in need :(
My thanks are greater than the size of the galaxy! :)

It may be good as a symbolic gesture, but it's a dubious marketing decision.
There're many better ways to support people suffering from the war and to spread anti-war propaganda instead of naive and ineffective boycotts.

all these actions like these that are intended to sow awareness about the situation among the population of russia, to let them know that what Putin is doing and that the world doesnt agree with them.... might as well completely backlash. instead of hating on putin they might as well start hating on the west for punishing the normal ppl that have nothing to do with the war.

edit... i think there would be better things they could do. like supporting ukraine with their sales and telling their russian customers that they are supporting ukraine with their money

edit2... is their money even worth anything now?

Because of this, or because the studio supports Ukraine, there's some review-bombing of The Witcher 3 on Steam, from people don't like the studio being "political".
You can see the increase in negative reviews if you open the chart

edit: current state

View attached image.

honestly i wish cdpr had suspended sales to the entire world for a year or two, so that cyberpunk would have been finished before going on sale...

seriously though, this is pointless. cdpr already price their games so low in russia that i doubt they'll miss the $80usd worth of sales they'll lose out on. This is just a 'this is all about me, look how trendy i am' moment for cdpr, not an actual meaningful pro ukraine support.

what they should have done is given 100% of all sales for the month of march to support ukraine relief efforts or something. if they were actually serious about supporting ukraine that is. really stunning how many companies are using this war as a way to boost their own profiles and profits rather than doing anything genuine or financially risky to make a real meaningful or useful gesture for the benefit of ukraine.

I'm torn here. I understand normal stores closing down (IKEA will have a hard time selling furniture if the economy crashes and no one will buy stuff) but there is no supply or Russian workers here. How will halting digital sales help except for giving CDP social points?

I think it's an economic move more than a moral position, games are sold in ruble in Russia but developers (on GOG and Steam and Epic and everywhere) are paid in dollars for games that were already sold for a fraction of the eastern price. At some point it just become unsustainable, the ruble is too low, you can't do business with people with no money.

I don't want to say much on this subject..

There are many unreasonable things with this and with what is going on.
What I would like to say though is that the more people get involved with restrictions the worse it is becoming for "freedom"

This decision is only harming the people (not their government) of one side of a complicated conflict that was unfolding for many years now. Whatever the reasons, the official stance is plain virtue-signalling if you ask me.

i get that this punishes Russian citizens but the point is that Putin is the one who asked for this. He was warned that the world would cut ties with him and his country if he chose to invade Ukraine and he did it anyway. Hopefully with all of these companies doing this, it inspires even more of the Russian people to rise up against Putin and oust him as quickly as possible. Russia deserves better than Putin.

I don't think CDPR decided to do this to punish russian gamers. It has more to do with the image of the company, they needed to make a stand on the matter. It is not a simple matter that can be easily discussed with just a poll. I feel for my fellow russian gamers but cannot blame CDPR either.

I'm on the fence here. On one hand, I can't shake off the feeling that I'm being punished for having been born in the wrong country. I've never supported this government and did my best to participate in the protest for many years, and yet I'm being punished anyway. I can do without new PC games, but it'll be hard without, say, Marks&Spencer: it was literally the only shop in Moscow where a plus-size woman could buy decent clothes. What I've been frantically buying these days is actually toys. My little and absolutely awesome niece and nephew definitely don't deserved to be deprived of quality toys and clothes, and, say, Lego is leaving Russia. The thought that they'll only have access to deeply pathetic stuff like we did during Perestroika and the 90's is a very painful one.
And if I write what I think on the other hand, I can literally be incarcerated. Approving any kind of sanctions in any way is a punishable offense since today.

im kinda surprised that putin hasnt just gone on twitter to post his side of the story, im kinda curious what his true motivations are

Another company making themselves look good by taking away from people who have little to no impact on the war, instead of say encouraging those people to support the victims in Ukraine through purchases and donations.

Less money for them to fix cyberpunk.

I really dislike Jeff Bezos so I punch every Amazon courier in the face. I'm sure eventually they'll start punching him and my message will be delivered.

https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-and-epic-join-the-list-of-publishers-halting-sales-in-russia/