During the night, Russia began its invasion of Ukraine at the order of president Vladamir Putin in what he called a “special military operation,” and Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs referred to as a “full-scale war.”
During the night, explosions were heard across the country and in the capital city of Kyiv as Russian troops began to push into the country from multiple fronts. As of today, dozens of Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and injured.
GSC World, the developer of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 went to Twitter to denounce the invasion, and ask people to support the armed forces of Ukraine.
“As of today, the Russian Federation has officially declared war on Ukraine,” the developer wrote. “Our country woke up with the sounds of explosions and weapons fire, but is ready to defend its freedom and independence for it remains strong and ready for anything.”
The company has approximately 300 people based in Kyiv and called upon the gaming community, and the rest of the world, to not stand aside but instead support the country in its time of need.
“We thus address all of our colleagues in the gaming industry, players, bloggers, or anyone else who sees this post in their newsfeed: share this, do not stand aside and help those in need.”
The developer of The Sinking City, Frogwares, is headquartered in Ukraine posted, “We can’t just stand by. Russia attacks our homeland and denies the sovereignty of Ukraine. We are trying to stay safe, but this is war, there are no two ways about it.”
Of course, some developers have a much stronger anti-war stance. Tallboys, the developers of Where Clouds End, posted a rather passionate rant against the whole endeavor: “Fuck the war, this morning we woke up in the middle of madness. Fuck the war, there is only feelings of anger and powerlessness. Fuck the war, we do not condone it in any shape of form, fuck the ones who do and also Fuck the Fucking War.”
World of Tanks developer Wargaming, which also has a subsidiary, announced in a press release that it is suspending advertisements worldwide for its Tanks and some of its Warships spots. The studio said that it will be replacing them with new ads “in the near future.” Although the release doesn’t mention the invasion directly, it does mention that it was also asking its ad partners to remove its ads, although ads “without images of military equipment” could stay.
Ubisoft, publisher of Assassin’s Creed has two offices in Ukraine, one in Kyiv and one in Odessa, which was shelled by Russian forces during the night.
“The safety and wellbeing of our team members is always our primary concern,” a spokesperson for Ubisoft told Kotaku in an email. “We are monitoring the situation closely and have already implemented several measures to help keep our teams in Ukraine safe. We also are providing assistance and aid to all team members. We don’t have more details to share at this time but will continue to monitor and adjust to the situation as it evolves.”
Final Fantasy XIV Online streamer Jessica St. John, known as Zepla, has now lived in Kyiv for a while now and has been telling her viewers and Twitter followers over the past weeks of her plans to leave the country as tensions rose. Now she’s successfully moved to safety.
Originally from Louisiana, Zepla has been living in Ukraine for around eight years. However, that has now come to an end with the invasion.
Zepla began relating how things were going starting in early February, explaining how she intended to evacuate to Western Ukraine and leave Kiyv with her pets. She did so and continued to stream. However, as the invasion approached yesterday things really began to put pressure on.
And then, the morning after the beginning of the invasion, Zepla informed her fans that she had made it across the border into Poland and all was well.
She has been streaming during the entire ordeal and talking about the experience right up until the invasion finally forced her over the border.
Not everyone in the country has such an ability to do so. Many gamers in the country are right now facing an uncertain future as Russian troops march across borders, bomb cities, and engage Ukrainian soldiers.
Photo: Pixabay
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