The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine has decided to take actions against the recently released Atomic Heart, claiming it'll reach out to Valve, Sony, and Microsoft to pull the game from digital storefronts in the region. Furthermore, the authorities encouraged players from other countries to boycott the game due to its developers' stance about the ongoing Russian invasion and other controversies surrounding the project.
Alex Bornyakov, the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, has revealed the Ministry will send an official letter to Valve, Sony, and Microsoft to completely ban Atomic Heart sales in Ukraine, dev.ua reported (via Game World Observer). The reason behind such a decision is that Mundfish didn't release any public statements condemning the Russian war against Ukraine, only saying the studio is a "pro-peace organization" that won't comment on politics.
The Minister additionally encourages players all over the world to boycott the game if they support Ukraine. "We also call for limiting the distribution of this game in other countries due to its toxicity, potential gathering of user data with possible transferring it to third parties in Russia, as well as the potential use of funds from the game's sales to continue waging war against Ukraine," Bornyakov said.
Bornyakov also pointed out that according to some sources, Mundfish was funded by "Russian enterprises and banks that fell under sanctions and are of systemic importance to the Russian government," including money the studio got from state-owned energy corporation Gazprom. However, there's no solid evidence of any connections between the developers and the Russian government at the moment. Mundfish revealed it has several developers from Ukraine who took part in creating the game, which is currently available on Steam with Ukrainian subtitles.
As of now, players already cannot purchase physical copies of Atomic Heart at local retailers in Ukraine, although such an option was briefly available prior to the game's launch at some dealers. It is unknown, though, why the Ministry of Digital Transformation's initiative to completely ban the game from all storefronts is coming shortly after the game's launch and not prior to it.