Atomic Heart Might be banned in Ukraine
After some controversies involving the context and development of the FPS, the Minister of Digital Affairs of Ukraine will ask for the suspension of the distribution of the game on the main platforms.
Photo: XboxEra
The game inspired by the Bioshok saga, developed by the Cypriot studio Mundfish and published by Focus Entertainment, which has also published games such as the A Plague Tale franchise, Insurgency: Sandstorm and Farming Simulator, was received relatively well by critics and players alike. With scores between six and nine out of 10 in the main media channels, it can be said that Atomic Heart, one of the most anticipated games of 1Q 2023, had a very acceptable launch, in contrast, for example, to Forspoken which, at the time of writing, it has a score of 3.4 out of 10 on Metacritic.
Controversies surround the game, leading to possible ban in the country.
But good numbers don’t tell the whole story. The game has been suffering from a number of heavy allegations and the future of the title is uncertain. Starting with the fact that the game takes place in, according to the game's creators, "a utopia of a parallel universe" of the Soviet Union in 1955, where post-war technology has advanced a lot. In this narrative, several factors are inserted, such as Soviet communism, the KGB Secret Service and other “pro-Soviet” elements. Of course, all these elements are part of the narrative since the game takes place in Russia, but certain descriptions might go down badly considering the current geopolitical situation. It should be noted that, obviously, the game has been in development for a long time, and the developers' goal was, necessarily, to support any political move. Such is the controversy, that on the company's own website, Mundfish defines itself as "an incredible international team of creatives from 10 different countries, including Poland, Ukraine, Austria, Georgia, Israel, Armenia, United Arab Emirates, Serbia and Cyprus".
In this list, however, only nine countries are mentioned directly, omitting the detail that, apart from two of the company's founders being Russian, a large part of the team is from Moscow, according to Mundfish's own LinkedIn page. Not to mention that, according to a text published on PCGamesN, one of Mundfish's main investing companies, GEM Capital, allegedly have direct links with Gazprom and VTB Bank, which are majority owned by the Russian government and, thus, would be linked to the conflict in Ukraine.
Based on this information, the Ukrainian Minister of Digital Affairs, Alexander Bornyakov, said that he will send a letter to Sony, Microsoft and Valve to ban the sale of Atomic Heart in Ukraine. The minister also commented on the sale of the game in other countries to dev.ua, an Ukrainian news website:
“We call for limiting the distribution of this game in other countries due to its toxicity, potential collection of user information and possibility of transfer to third parties in Russia, and also the potential use of money involved in purchasing the game to fund the war against Ukraine,”
On the issue of data transfer, an excerpt, now unavailable, of the Russian version of terms and conditions of the game was found that anyone who accepts the ToS would give Mundfish the right to pass on Russian users' information, including full name, phone, IP address, etc., to the government.
Part of ToS in Russian, now removed from the list.
Lastly, Bornyakov commented that he would encourage players to ignore and boycott the game, and that the developers didn’t declare anything regarding the war. However, possibly anticipating some kind of controversy, Mundfish tweeted, through its official account, that it is “indisputably in favor of peace and against violence”.
After receiving messages of all kinds, the composer Mick Gordon, responsible for some of the most memorable soundtracks in the history of video games, such as DOOM and Wolfenstein, spoke out on Twitter, and said that all the money he received for the tracks made for the game was donated to the Ukrainian cause of the Australian Red Cross, and commented to his followers that any kind of donation to the cause was not only welcome, but necessary.
Finally, there is a very complete video on all the issues addressed in this text by Ukrainian YouTuber Harenko. For English-speaking readers, a visit to the video is indicated. But, of course, before taking any conclusions, please investigate the issue by yourself.
Atomic Heart is indisputably beautiful. With a gameplay very similar to that of Bioshok Infinite and Prey, the single-player game seems to be fun and exciting, but the luggage it brings will be, yes, the reason why many people will stop playing it.
And you, what do you think about all this controversy?