World Of Tanks Studio Seized By Russia, Accused Of Supporting Ukraine

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

World Of Tanks Studio Seized By Russia, Accused Of Supporting Ukraine

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

World of Tanks lets players engage in simulated war battles, but the real war between Russia and Ukraine has led to Lesta Games–the Russian studio behind the game–facing charges that it illegally funneled money from its title to Ukraine.

The original developer of World of Tanks is WargamingUnited, a company that withdrew from Russia and Belarus directly because of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Wargaming has also raised money in support of Ukraine, which would be a crime under current Russian law. Lesta Games–which took over the local Russian rights for World of Tanks–has repeatedly stressed that it has no relationship with Wargaming. That wasn’t enough to prevent Russia from seizing control of Lesta Games.

As reported by

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, Moscow has frozen all assets that belong to Lesta Games, and accused the company’s co-founder, Malik Khatazhaev, of being part of an “extremist group” under the control of Wargaming CEO Viktor Kisly. The evidence cited in court reportedly drew upon footage of Wargaming’s support for Ukraine.

Russian media is reportedly telling World of Tanks players in the country that they won’t be arrested for spending money on the game that might have gone to Ukraine. Duma’s Information Technology Committee’s deputy chairman, Anton Gorelkin, also told players that Lesta Games’ assets will likely be handed over to “a specialized Russian company.”

It bears repeating that the World of Tanks game rights in Russia are only limited to that country. Wargaming still has its World of Tanks assets and rights in other countries. Lesta Games isn’t the only video game developer to be affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Developer GSC Game World continued to develop Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl even as some of the devs either fled the country or remained to fight. The story of those developers was told in GameSpot’s documentary, How Stalker 2 Survived a War.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#World #Tanks #Studio #Seized #Russia #Accused #Supporting #Ukraine

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up