Sony PlayStation becomes latest big brand to boycott Russia

Sony has halted a major part of its operations in Russia in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Japanese company announced on Wednesday it had suspended shipments of all PlayStation software and hardware in Russia and stopped operations of the PlayStation Store there. It’s also postponed the launch of the racing game Gran Turismo 7 in Russia until further notice.

In a statement (below) shared on its Twitter account, Sony said it “joins the global community in calling for peace in Ukraine,” adding that to support humanitarian aid, it will donate $2 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Save the Children.

pic.twitter.com/1KV95QiFHN

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) March 9, 2022

Sony’s move follows in the footsteps of a growing number of big-name brands to suspend operations in Russia imn the wake of its invasion of Ukraine toward the end of last month.

In the tech world, the war has prompted companies such as Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Nvidia, Netflix, and TikTok to suspend, scale back, or alter in some way their operations in Russia.

As for the gaming industry, Nintendo said last week it was putting its eShop in Russia into maintenance mode. In an explanation, it made no direct mention of the current conflict, saying only that the pause in sales was due to an issue with payment processing as its system was currently unable to handle Russian rubles. On Wednesday, Nintendo also said that “in light of recent world events,” it was delaying the launch of Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp globally, apparently due to the game’s war-focused content.

Gaming giant EA said recently it would remove Russian teams from its FIFA and NHL games, while Cyberpunk 2077 maker CD Projekt announced last week that it would halt all sales of its games in Russia and also Belarus, which has allowed the Russian military to use its land to launch forces into Ukraine.

The Poland-based company said the entire CD Projekt Group “stands firm with the people of Ukraine” and urged its “brothers and sisters fighting for their home country” to “stay strong.”