In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, officials from the country have called on video game publishers, particularly the big console-makers, to boycott the Russian market. At this point, most of the major players, including Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, Ubisoft, EA, CD Projekt Red, Microsoft, and Sony have indeed gone ahead and suspended business in Russia. Really, there was only one more major domino still left to fall – Nintendo. While the Switch eShop has been unavailable in Russia due to payment issues, more deliberate action hadn’t been taken.
Well, that’s now changed – in a new statement provided to Eurogamer, Nintendo says they’ve suspended shipping of products to Russia and have confirmed the eShop will remain in maintenance mode for the foreseeable future. Interestingly, Nintendo’s still doesn’t take any sort of principled stance here, simply stating that the logistics of selling in Russia are too complex right now. Honestly, that’s probably one of the major reasons other publishers have pulled out, although its unusual to see it stated so directly.
We have decided to suspend shipping all Nintendo products to Russia for the foreseeable future. This is due to considerable volatility surrounding the logistics of shipping and distributing physical goods. In addition, Nintendo eShop in Russia is currently under maintenance following the suspension of transactions in Russian rubles by the payment provider.
And with that, all three of the major console makers have suspended sales in Russia. Nintendo also recently announced that they were delaying Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp in light of recent events in Ukraine. A new release date for the game has yet to be announced.
We here at Wccftech hope for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and the safety of all Ukrainian citizens. If you wish to donate to the International Committee of the Red Cross to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, head to this page.
