Due to the ongoing situation in Ukraine, there have been sanctions placed upon many Russian businesses, and since some people can’t currently buy Four Quarters’ title Loop Hero, the developer says you should pirate it.
Speaking on the Russian social media network VK (thanks, Vice), Four Quarters explained that the team has been asked how to buy Loop Hero on Switch or on Steam in a way that supports the developer. Four Quarters explained that there was a workaround using an e-wallet called Qiwi for PC, but there’s no way to buy the game currently on Switch.
In response to this, the developer said “It is not known when all this will end, therefore, in such difficult times, we can only help everyone to raise the pirate flag (together with VPN) and share the most popular [torrent].”
The developer then shared a link to one of the largest torrenting sites in Russia, with over 13million registered users. Four Quarters said “Download to health, enjoy the game”.
Shortly afterwards, a further statement was released on VK, saying “We didn’t do anything special, because there is nothing wrong with torrents. Contrary to our answer in the comments, we began to offer donations very often. We are very grateful for your support, but the truth is that everything is fine with us, send this support to your family and friends at this difficult time.”
We are against war.
— FourQuarters team | Loop Hero (@_FQteam) February 24, 2022
The developer had taken a risk previously, as on February 24 it tweeted the simple statement “We are against war”. Russian authorities have been clamping down on public comments like this, refusing to refer to the situation as “war”, instead saying it’s a “special military operation”.
Loop Hero is quite a popular indie game, with over 25,000 reviews on Steam, landing on a “very positive” rating, and selling over half a million copies in the first week of it being on sale.
In other news, Activision Blizzard has settled its federal sexual harassment lawsuit for £13.7million, but the company continues to face several other ongoing lawsuits that allege sexual misconduct, coercion and more.
