The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077 Creators Halt Sales in Russia, Belarus
CD Projekt, the parent company of developer CD Projekt Red, announced this week that it has halted the sales of its games in both Russia and Belarus following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This includes both the sales of physical and digital games – CD Projekt Red is currently best known for games like The Witcher III: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 – and also encompasses the sales of games through the GOG platform that's owned by CD Projekt.
The decision from CD Projekt was shared in posts on social media shared on Thursday. CD Projekt's halting of its sales in Russia and Belarus is in the works now with the company saying it's working with its various distribution partners to end the sales entirely.
"In light of the Russian military invasion in our neighboring country of Ukraine, until further notice the CD PROJEKT Group has made the decision to halt all sales of our games to Russia and Belarus," the post said. Today, we begin working with our partners to suspend digital sales and cease physical stock deliveries of CD PROJEKT Group products, as well as all games distributed on the GOG platform, to the territories of Russia and Belarus."
— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) March 3, 2022
The same post continued to acknowledge that the actions would impact those in Russia and Belarus who had nothing to do with the situation but hoped the decision would "galvanize the global community" to speak out.
"The entire CD PROJEKT Group stands firm with the people of Ukraine. While we are not a political entity capable of directly influencing state matters, and don't aspire to be one, we do believe that commercial entities, when united, have the power to inspire global change in the hearts and minds of ordinary people," the post continued. "We know that players in Russia and Belarus, individuals who have nothing to do with the invasion of Ukraine, will be impacted by this decision, but with this action we wish to further galvanize the global community to speak about what is going on in the heart of Europe."
The CD Projekt Group previously condemned Russia's actions and announced plans to offer aid for "victims of this act of aggression."
Other major companies including Disney and also Warner Bros. have paused the distribution of their products in Russia and Belarus, too. This week, Ukraine pressured major game developers and other platforms including PlayStation and Xbox to adopt similar stances.