Russian stores will boycott new Call of Duty game – media – RT Games & Culture
Russian electronics stores will not sell the first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III for fear that the game’s violence against Russian characters might violate local laws, the agency reported Monday. RBC press, citing four popular retail chains. According to the report, retailers M.Video – Eldorado, DNS, Buka, and EMSI have all opted not to distribute the game, at least until they see its final release.
A DNS official was quoted as saying that “The likelihood that this game contains violence against Russian citizens is very high,” which, in turn, can be considered a violation of the country’s hate speech laws.
Representatives for Buka and EMSI also stated that they would refrain from selling the game upon its worldwide release and would only change their minds if the game’s actual content did not violate the law. “The likelihood of such content is quite high,” ” a representative for Buka told RBC, citing previous media reports.
Yasha Haddaji, president of the Russian Association of Video Game Distributors and Importers, told the news agency that the game’s marketing campaign depicts a Russian character as a villain. “The game contains calls for violence against a Russian citizen. We think this is unacceptable. Haddaji, the former director of Nintendo Russia, said.
The Modern Warfare III trailer released last month focuses on the game’s main antagonist, Vladimir Makarov, whose tattoos include the image of a roaring bear.
The series, which has featured other Russian villains in the past, first sparked controversy in 2009. Modern Warfare 2 contained the infamous level, which allowed players to participate in a massacre of civilians at a Russian airport. The mission sparked outrage in Russia, ultimately prompting developer Activision to remove the level entirely from the Russian version of the game.
Several major foreign video game publishers have left Russia following Moscow’s ongoing military operation in Ukraine, launched in February 2022. As companies and marketplaces have banned digital sales in Russia, stores in the country continue to sell physical copies of the games. imported from abroad.
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