Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo suspend sales in Russia over the Ukraine war

March 11, 2022: -Sony’s PlayStation division and Nintendo have stopped product sales in Russia, becoming the recent major brands to withdraw from the country over the Ukraine war.

On Wednesday, a representative for Sony’s video game unit said that the company had suspended all console and software shipments in the country, including the launch of the new racing title Gran Turismo 7. The PlayStation Store will no longer be available in Russia.0-

“Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) joins the global community in calling for peace in Ukraine,” the company said.

Sony Group said it has earmarked $2 million for donations to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Save the Children “to support the victims of this tragedy.”

On Wednesday, Nintendo said it suspends all shipments to Russia “for the foreseeable future,” citing “considerable volatility surrounding the logistics of shipping and distributing physical goods.”

Sony and Nintendo are after in the footsteps of iconic brands McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Starbucks, which have suspended operations in Russia from the outcry over the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

In the previous week, video game companies started severing ties with Russia. CD Projekt, makers of the sci-fi game Cyberpunk 2077, and Electronic Arts said they would block all sales of games and content in Russia and Belarus.

On Friday, Microsoft said that it would halt all recent sales of its products and services in Russia, including its Xbox games consoles, software, and subscription services. The studio behind Fortnite, Epic Games, followed suit the next day,  which says it was “stopping commerce with Russia in our games.”

Sony’s decision is one of the industry’s significant moves yet. According to industry insiders, the company has the most prominent presence in Russia of any console maker.

“PlayStation has the huge installed base, so if a company on the console side has a tough choice from a purely financial angle, it’s Sony,” Lewis Ward, head of gaming at research firm IDC, recently told CNBC.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s digital minister, had called on Microsoft and Sony to block all Russian and Belarusian accounts and cancel the planned events in the two countries.