The Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, has officially requested that Microsoft, Sony, and Valve ban the selling of Atomic Heart on their respective storefronts. Documentation regarding the proposal was published online, via Fedorov's government official Twitter account. "Official requests to ban selling Atomic Heart game. I do believe neither of these businesses support bloody regime, murders or romanticizing communism. Brand new level of Russian digital propaganda – using gaming industry," reads the Vice Prime Minister's tweet. Attached in the tweet was a letter, which had been sent to Sony Interactive Entertainment's CEO Jim Ryan, Sony Group Corporation President Kenichiro Yoshida, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft Brad Smith, and CEO of Valve Corporation Gabe Newell.
The letter begins by stating, "The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine appreciates the measures that private companies have already applied to strengthen the economic pressure on Russia by suspending the operational and commercial activities there." For those unaware, PlayStation and many other companies suspended sales in Russia following the country's invasion of Ukraine last year.
Fedorov continues the letter by expressing serious concerns regarding the recently released Atomic Heart, which is developed by the Russian studio Mundfish. "As Mundfiish has Russian management and offices, there is a potential risk that money raised from the purchases of the game will be transferred to Russia's budget, so it will be used to fund war against Ukraine."
The Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine also states that Atomic Heart violates Ukrainian legislation, as the game itself promotes the communist regime and Soviet symbols. As such, Fedorov's letter asks the aforementioned companies to ban the selling of Atomic Heart on digital storefronts as he believes that they "[don't] want to be considered as a platform that supports communism, even in such futuristic execution."
"Taking into account the above mentioned, we urge Sony Group Corporation to ban the selling digital versions of this game via Sony PlayStation." As you can imagine, the other letters to Microsoft and Valve make the same request, but with both the Microsoft Store and Steam.
It is yet to be known whether or not any of the three companies will accept the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine's request.