Unpaid revenue payments to Ukrainian developers on Steam, Russia and Belarus



An email sent by Valve, the operator of Steam, to game developers found that developers in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus were behind in paying the revenue they should receive in March 2022. Valve attributed this to the complexity of the process as the bank it uses to make payments added new rules to its remittance rules.

Game developers in Ukraine hope Steam will be able to pay them soon | PC Gamer
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/steam-ukraine-russia-payments/

Valve says sanctions blocking payments to Steam devs in Ukraine, Russia --Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/23003359/valve-steam-ukraine-russia-developers-bank-regulations-payment

Ukrainian indie game developer Stas Shostak, who works on action games such as ' Katana Kata ' set in Japan during the Edo period, received a notification from Valve on March 18, 2022 that payment of revenue will be delayed. I reported in. The email says, 'In the current environment, we cannot send money to Belarus, Russia or Ukraine.' Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, uses the word 'environment' in a roundabout way, and it is the time when Ukrainian developers need the most support, and the text is too. For the sake of brevity, the criticism was concentrated on this notification.



Another Ukrainian indie game developer, Ternox Games, criticized Valve, saying, 'Did my country be attacked by Russia and that's why we decided to rob us of our income?' doing.



In a new email sent to Ghostak and others, Valve was informed last week that our bank would ask us to provide information on the intermediary bank for all remittances to our Russian and Ukrainian accounts. In addition, you will not be able to pay to Ukraine. We understand all the new rules and are working on creating a route to collect this information from our customers and send it to the bank, but to complete the work. Will not be in time for the payment scheduled for the end of March due to the time it takes, 'he said, explaining in detail why the money could not be sent and apologizing for the lack of explanation in the first notice.



'I'm sorry for the rudeness, but I wanted you to say that from the beginning,' Shostak said. 'In short, you have to wait, you have no payment this month. Thank you for your explanation,' said Ternox Games.

Even at the time of writing the article in April, there is no prospect of paying the profit for March. Shostak told gaming media PC Gamer, 'I still don't know if it will be paid in April. Will they really solve the problem by interacting with the bank? Or Ukraine remains separated. Will it be? Some game developers, including myself, are just waiting, but some have opened bank accounts abroad to ensure they receive their next payment. '

It's unclear how many Ukrainian game developers delivering games on Steam are affected by late payments. Also, developers in Russia and Belarus are similarly behind in payments, but in the case of both countries, other factors such as economic sanctions are involved.

According to PC Gamer, sanctions by the United States have restricted access to the Steam wallet for Russian Steam users. In addition, GOG, Microsoft, and Sony , which are game stores under the umbrella of CD Projekt, have also announced that they will stop selling games in Russia and Belarus altogether.

In addition to game sales platforms and game console manufacturers, game development companies such as Ubisoft, EA, Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, and Niantic have announced that they will stop selling games and charging in Russia one after another.

Activision Blizzard and Epic Games Stop Selling Games in Russia-GIGAZINE


by Tarcil Tarcil

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