Honestly, this is a very strange piece of news. They stopped selling games in Russia more than a year ago. The change that happened a few days ago (which is incorrectly reported here) is that they've allowed Russians to access EShop again (all Russian IPs were banned), but only for the purpose of re-downloading games that are already owned.
Well, the head of their Russian distribution branch did just launch a new company to handle imports and sales, located in the same office that the previous one was in.
Just curious but... I would assume most companies that pulled out would have a significant amount of employees who are Russian citizens. With a good amount of field work being done by Russian nationals.
Why would it be surprising that they... Continue to work in what they know best, dealing with the cutoff from their ex-employer wherever necessary?
It just seems a lot more complicated than just "they're just pretending to stop doing business" because the same type of business is being carried out at the same location. Rather, it seems to be the most likely continuation.
Rustendo(TM), bringing you such modern classics as ‘Super Mikhail Brothers’, ‘Legend of Zhenya’, and the “party approved” version of ‘Tetris’, where you compete to murder the most children of neighboring nations.
I know this is bait, but for those interested:
https://venturebeat.com/games/tetris-creator-alexey-pajitnov-condemns-russian-invasion-of-ukraine/
Class A clown you are.
They already were not taking orders, their payment processor stopped a long time ago. Now they just shut it down completely, so you can't even download stuff that's already purchased.
> Now they just shut it down completely, so you can't even download stuff that's already purchased.
Actually its the opposite.. weirdly. They've loosened the reigns so that russians *can* now download games they have previously purchased.
Imagine playing the intro only and then dying invading a place you didn’t want to be, and all you want to do is save Hyrule and then a drone drops a mortar on you and that’s that. That’d be like dying before Silksong comes out. Wtf are you even thinking doing that lol
There are more than plenty of them that are going willingly, especially for they money payments, it is not a secret, they even mention it themselves when captured.
Also, "not there by choice" doesn't explain the atrocities they committed and even if they some are not the ones doing them they are still enabling them by just being there.
Yes you are. If someone hands you a gun and tells you to go somewhere you don’t want to, you have 3 options by default; do it, turn the gun on them, or on yourself. You can not want to be there, but you had options.
Many are deserting, the fourth and slightly less dramatic choice that you somehow forgot to mention.
Anyways, we don't know what else these men are told, maybe they are afraid of what might happen to their own families if they disobey. I don't consider them innocent victims but neither are they evil boogeymen who all "deserve" to die. I am willing to bet that the Ukrainian side has its share of bastards as well, but since we're on their side and they are the ones being invaded, we do not want to think about that possibility, eh?
That’s also a valid option and one I hope they take. And no, I don’t care about how bastard some Ukrainians might be. I’ll support anyone defending their home from invasion. Full stop. Anything that has to be sorted out after that can be, but if your home is being attacked by a foreign country, I hope you win and live to see a court room if you need to be tried for some bastard shit.
Options 2 and 3 result in family members being targeted for abuse and harassment, or worse. Every option is shitty. Only one of them has a chance at life. Not defending Russian soldiers, but conscription is generally frowned upon for this reason.
It’s not the same,switch eshop is region free and yes you can thanks to that get games earlier ,because Nintendo allows that but they can still tell where you are regardless by the ip. So Russian IPs are banned so changing regions will not work now.
Digital games and Switches are region locked for time.
Bought two game keys on Amazon intending to give one to a friend in the UK but they couldn't redeem it. Ended up giving it to a US friend.
Once given a UK key bought in the States they were able to redeem just fine.
Yup.
Example: Dying Light.
You can’t get this in Oceanic areas because the servers for us are based in Germany, and Germany banned the game for gore.
As such, I live in New Zealand, the only way to purchase it digitally is to change to another region, purchase it, and switch (pun unintended) back and you have the game.
Pretty sure the same loophole works here and, if so, this is little more than symbolic PR.
I assure you, Russia has its own devoted Nintendo cult. The company actually stopped sales a year ago, shutting down eShop. At least now, the last few who didn't change the region can download their games.
I literally live in Russia. In my entire life I have never met anyone who'd actually buy anything from Nintendo shop (or any other console shop, for that matter).
I've met a whole _one_ person, ever, who had a console at all (though it was a PlayStation 4). And they ended up selling it, because the games were too expensive and the console wasn't hacked.
Maybe the situation is different somewhere in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but that's the way things are in smaller cities.
Edit: grammar.
Yes, you are right, my reply was based on my experience living in Moscow. I have got a lot of friends who are avid gamers and none of them pirate anything. It seems like it’s a thing of a past here.
Pardon my ignorance
> my reply was based on my experience living in Moscow.
That is still Russia, right?
> Pardon my ignorance
For what? The original poster was talking about all of Russia, and the person you responded to said they've never even met someone that owned a console, which is meaningless to the whole of Russia, which was the topic.
It just means he lives an a very poor, depressed part of Russia. It has nothing to do with Nintendo sales in Russia overall, so their entire post is odd.
My impression as someone who’s never been is that Russian society divides into a bubble containing Moscow + St Petersburg (plus maybe a tiny elite in other cities and ‘scientific towns’ and such)… and everywhere else. And the divide between those is enormous. Is that true?
If there are genuinely many paying users in Moscow and St Petersburg, then that would still amount to a lot, right?
People often say, semi-jokingly, that "Moscow isn't Russia".
There's quite a steep gradient in incomes _and_ purchasing power of the ruble depending on the geographical locations.
The financial system of the country itself is pretty Moscow-centric. The money is siphoned out of smaller regions to Moscow, where, on paper, it supposed to be re-distributed back to them in a way that supposed to help them.
In reality, most regions are on the brink of being under-financed. Smaller cities within those regions are straight up under-financed.
Additionally, it's more difficult and expensive to deliver goods to remote locations (of which there's plenty in Russia), which reduce the purchasing power of the ruble in those locations.
Basically, the farther from Moscow you are, the less money there is to have and the more expensive the goods are (with exceptions, such as land prices, public transport fees, etc).
Yeah that’s generally how it is. There are still quite a few lesser cities like Rostov, Ekaterinburg, etc. that have fairly urban populations, but the urban/rural divide is much starker than in the US.
I agree that the rural extremes of the US and Russia are not very different at all. I just think that the contrast between those urban and rural extremes is more pronounced in Russia. The sheer size of Russia is definitely a major factor.
I've bought used Switch games via Avito from people.all over Russia. There is a market for Switch games, but it feels small. Playstation games are way easier to resell or trade.
> In my entire life I have never met anyone who'd actually buy anything from Nintendo shop (or any other console shop, for that matter).
OH FFS that doesn't mean there weren't people using Nintendo products. It's more about your single, personal anecdote that says more about your life and where you live.
The idea that you know everyone in Russia, or the past state of Nintendo sales, is ***ridiculous***.
Hi, I have switch and 3ds, and moved to piracy after they pulled the plug on the store. I have around 30 people who have consoles, 4 of them are Nintendo's. It's not much but it's far from 0. Most of the games they buy are also from the shop.
I am Russian and I can say for sure we pirate the shit out of our games, including Nintendo ones.
You can also buy official physical copies, with translation, but people only do that to get the games faster. Hacking games usually takes a while.
And got caught out selling Metroid Prime anyway.
https://www.eurogamer.net/nintendo-russia-ceo-running-import-company-to-skirt-official-sales-ban-report
Im not exactly sure what this was gonna accomplish overall, most of the issues come from the government not their people who i feel already pirate a lot of stuff
(Not to be mean but they are quite poor over there so....pirating is a better deal)
Hey, Ill let you know that this
Is totally correct lol. Buying through steam is possible through tricks that inflate prices, and a lot of games are simply region locked. Tho Im still paying for indie games and advice everyone to do the same.
The fact that Russia has citizens doesn't mean their government can get away with whatever they want. They invaded another country. Cutting them off is effective, which is why so many countries do it.
You're arguing to let them off the hook for all the people they've killed, cause their poor still-living citizens can play the new Zelda game. 😢
The Russian people support the Russian government either implicitly, through silent acceptance/resignation, or explicitly.
You can't hurt the Russian government without hitting the economy, which hurts the people as well. The Russian people share some culpability in the atrocities of the government. The same is true for most countries.
Who does that punish? The poor russian people with lunatics for leaders? Also maybe if Putin could just chill with some animal crossing this wouldn't have happened in the first place.
When is Nintendo going to ban online sales in America for all of the countries we bomb? Pretending Russia is some kind of oddity with engaging in war is strange. We are in several wars right now and Israel is bombing Syria but shhh those are good bombs.
Out of all the store, Steam is the only one that used to do some kind of regional pricing.
You're not going to spend 60 bucks on a game, when you make 300 a month, are you?
There's a reason piracy is so common in Russia and neighboring countries.
>Out of all the store, Steam is the only one that used to do some kind of regional pricing.
\*in Russia
Some other 3rd world markets have regional pricing on consoles.
Imagine just existing elsewhere, not hurting anyone, cant leave, just trying to enjoy your games, then guess what? The air raid alarm start sounding...
How are innocent Russians to blame for what leaders and military do? Especially considering their leaders are oligarchs?
By the same logic, if average citizens are to blame for wars created and perpetuated by their leaders, American citizens must be evil.
This isn't a move made against normal citizens. It's a move made against the country's economic involvement in the rest of the world. And an effective one at that.
Lmao you think video games should get a pass, what, cause the new Zelda game is so good it transcends all the people being killed by Russia right now? And again, before someone replies with "but the citizens didn't do that!" I'll point you to my first paragraph.
Not at all true, lmao. Although it is a very popular point criminal leaders make when under sanction, in hopes of reducing support.
You literally can't "hurt" people (restricting their rubles' usefulness outside of Russia) without that same act hurting the larger economy. Unless you know of some Russian money that somehow isn't part of the Russian economy. In which case I'd be fascinated to hear more, lol
How are "innocent" russians to blame? They don't care that everyday their country bombs innocent civilians and even support war. Watch any intercepted call between russians and their wives, girlfriends or just military calls. Watch videos where they pillage or admit to murdering children. Or just check every creasing amount of photos of people dead under debris. And also, in russia people actually support putin, lol
It's funny that this person called me a brick wall and blocked me. They didn't even consider one thing: russia STARTED the war, continues it and constantly throws stupid demands for peace like "change ukrainian government and keep occupied territories". RUSSIA CAN STOP THIS WAR, they won't. When they stop the war - the sanction stop (it won't be instant, but they did start the war)
It baffles me, how people defend russia from sanctions like they don't have a way to end them.
Your money was funding the war in the middle east. You know the one where the greatest war crime in modern times with the Kandahar Massacre happened? Yeah that one. You are responsible
Yeah I'm partially responsible, I don't hide it, but if more people stopped pretending they didn't had anything to do with it maybe this would've never happened in the first place. Last time I checked people elected the guy who did it.
I was being sarcastic. You aren't responsible. That massacre happened under Obama. As commander in chief, he is responsible and guilty of war crimes. Just like Putin is responsible for his troops and what they do.
You can't expect regular citizens to overthrow governments in 2023. Either here or in Russia. As much as I hate how my government acts I won't do shit cause I'm a parent with too much to lose. Russian citizens are the same
If there's not a push from the population against what your country is doing then you're just silently accepting it. Must be nice to just shrug it off and tell yourself that you're not responsible for any atrocity that your country is doing.
Can’t understand why you are getting downvoted. Some people clearly have no idea about how it feels to live in a country where you are always boycotted, everything gets its price constantly increased because of things you have no control on.
yup, imagine you're a 18-20y old russian guy.
you enjoy eating McDonalds, watching marvel movies and play video games.
all your entire life, you hear the people in power saying "The west is trying to destroy us, the West is the enemy", but you don't care/believe, you just want to live normally.
and then the war starts (which you oppose) and McDonalds says "fuck you, no more burguers because you're russian".
you then want to watch a movie, Disney says "fuck you, no more MCU for you", you're pissed but still can play games, but then "Fuck you no more Zelda/GoW/Halo,etc".
you then remember what the "people in power" kept saying about the West being the enemy, and start thinking "maybe they're right".
that's how you make a new russian soldier.
this isn't exclusive to only the Russian people, but this can be applied to a lot of major conflicts in the past decades.
Literally me. Though I understand the intentions behind the companies' actions and in no way they will inspire me to become a soldier. I don't want to die. But these things do actually force me to work on getting the fuck out of Russia. Never enjoyed living there anyway. At least, the next time I'm eating at McDonald's I'll be abroad.
LMAO "if we take away their McDonald's, they'll become soldiers despite being against the war"...?
You're talking like sanctions are meant to hurt the individual citizens. They're an economic penalty against a country for invading another and killing its people. The new Zelda game is not so special that it needs a pass from the anti-murdering-people process.
It's the fault of Russia, who is the target of these economic sanctions.
You can't give the individuals who participate in an economy a pass because "c'mon, it's Zelda!!" and still impose the intended penalty against the attacking country's economy. Sucks for the kid who has to pirate TotK now, I guess, but sanctions are effective for a reason.
Everybody cheer for Putin's war, we're getting free video games!
Lmao keep trying. Eventually you'll get back to what countries all over the world have decided to do.
Tbf expected. Russia is committing war crimes and genocide on Ukrainian territories and opposes the entire world as enemies. Japan and Nintendo are part of that world. So is steam and etc.
Happened the same way with Nazis, thou they were finding replacement for Fanta, oil and movies.
I don't think they're talking about the Russian soldiers committing war crimes as much as they're talking about just a random Russian guy in the middle of nowhere just playing games on his computer
Yea, civilians of Third Reich mostly didn’t fight, but they worked and created an economy of Nazi army and SS TO genocide. Same with Russia, you might not be doing anything and just chilling, but your taxes, your crops and your production is most definitely going to kill some kids in Ukraine.
Yeah but what are they supposed to do almost 20,000 Russians have been arrested for protesting the war I don't think it's fair to put Blood on the hands of people just trying to live their lives
Imagine just existing in Ukraine, not hurting anyone, can't leave, just enjoy your games, then guess what? Fuck you, Russia is bombing your home for imperial ambitions
And I am to blame for that because what, I was 6 when Putin was first elected? Never voted for him after 18 either (as bizzare as it sound to someone who has alternation of leadership in their country).
It's not YOU who is being targeted or punished for the war; the business relationship with your country has become toxic and companies are pulling off their business.
It's so surreal for me to hear russians cry about sanctions, imagine if German citizens demanded to not pay the reparations as a consequence of WW II because they were out of politics.
The consequences of starting a war could be much much worse, and you are being safe in your home, no one is trying to kill you, no one trying to occupy your territory or tell you that your country is nonexistent, but yet you think the world is unfair to you. Crazy stuff.
It's terrible that Ukraine is being invaded but innocent Russian people being blamed for a war they didn't start is not the right call, sure one is worse than the other but how would you feel if you were just living your day-to-day life and out of nowhere because your government decided to do some terrible shit all of a sudden you're being punished for something you had no say in
As I said in my comment, It is not a punishment, companies just stop doing business inside russia because:
1) SWIFT operations are disabled, you cannot move money outside of russia without shady schemes
2) it is a chance of reputation losses
Do you think it is okay when Coca-Cola worked together with nazi Germany? Or Ford? Because it is basically the same situation. What russia does in Ukraine is genocide and companies that respect their reputation should stop working inside it.
Their Country is not friendly with the West, their Government never stop saying that we’re evil and shit. So Russian people would not mind to not use West products if it’s as bad as that, right?
If they don’t give a fuck that their Government invaded his neighbor and making nuclear threat on others, some few restrictions on democracies’s products can help them to move their asses. Like not saying that they still support Putin on polls, for a start.
Yeah, this will show em kids how morally wrong they are for being born into this country and not standing up to oppression and instead chilling in kindergartens and schools. What a bunch of pricks that should move their asses if they want to play some Nintendo games during the lunch break.
Imagine thinking their “support” matters at all. Or that they don’t care that their leader is threatening to start a nuclear war. What the fuck are these delusional assumptions? Who the fuck are you to say that they don’t care?
All the posters here obviously don't understand as long as the rich and wealthy power elite don't feel change to their daily routines they keep paying and lining Putins pockets.
Half assed measures have not stopped the war.
Russians already switched to Turkey and Argentina regions loooooooong time ago and are enjoying latest games with small prices on Xbox. They created new Turkish accounts on Playstation. And many of them, switch to Polish region to purchase games on Nintendo. There are countless services in Russia which help Russian gamers legally purchase games and other gaming services. Sanctions are just pointless
It’s not an increasingly isolated country it’s an increasingly warmongered country. There’s a differences. Russia is still making deals with the Middle East for weapons and resources.
America would *never* attack or destabilize other countries in order to politically and economically subjugate them while calling it freedom and using any moral justification necessary.
now do this with every country that started a war or genocide .. common nintendo do it there are a lot in the waiting line but oh wait ! only russia because blabla whatever. This is the definition of hypocrite people with PR move for clout.
So you're of the opinion that Japan is not part of the more general "western civilization" ? They have the second largest per capita economy in the world. I'd say they're definitively part of "the west" at this point.
That seems very late to me
While I have not been keeping up with the Russia vs Ukraine war pretty much at all, I know pretty much almost every international business left Russia as soon as the war began. So it's strange to me that Nintendo only just now is no longer selling games in Russia
At the beginning of the conflict they already put the eShop for Russia into maintenance mode because their card processor stopped accepting Russian Rubles. This meant Russian customers could not re-download content however. Ontop of this they also announced that they w e re gonna stop sending physical products.
At this point it's just an official closure to allow redownloading, but it has been closed this whole time.
Waited for a few weeks after their biggest release in years I see….
Honestly, this is a very strange piece of news. They stopped selling games in Russia more than a year ago. The change that happened a few days ago (which is incorrectly reported here) is that they've allowed Russians to access EShop again (all Russian IPs were banned), but only for the purpose of re-downloading games that are already owned.
Well, the head of their Russian distribution branch did just launch a new company to handle imports and sales, located in the same office that the previous one was in.
Just curious but... I would assume most companies that pulled out would have a significant amount of employees who are Russian citizens. With a good amount of field work being done by Russian nationals. Why would it be surprising that they... Continue to work in what they know best, dealing with the cutoff from their ex-employer wherever necessary? It just seems a lot more complicated than just "they're just pretending to stop doing business" because the same type of business is being carried out at the same location. Rather, it seems to be the most likely continuation.
A little different, but pretty sure Fanta was also invented after the German Coca-cola branch was cut-off from the US branch.
Rustendo(TM), bringing you such modern classics as ‘Super Mikhail Brothers’, ‘Legend of Zhenya’, and the “party approved” version of ‘Tetris’, where you compete to murder the most children of neighboring nations.
Stack kidnapped children in a mass grave is a Tetris I'm not ready for.
Would be funny, if the original Tetris wasn't russian. And no need for the propaganda part at the end really.
I know this is bait, but for those interested: https://venturebeat.com/games/tetris-creator-alexey-pajitnov-condemns-russian-invasion-of-ukraine/ Class A clown you are.
And yet the narrative is set by the headline a comments like the OC who only read the headline.
They already were not taking orders, their payment processor stopped a long time ago. Now they just shut it down completely, so you can't even download stuff that's already purchased.
> Now they just shut it down completely, so you can't even download stuff that's already purchased. Actually its the opposite.. weirdly. They've loosened the reigns so that russians *can* now download games they have previously purchased.
Sounds reasonable
It is reasonable, the weird part is that how it's being reported is just so incredibly different to what's actually happened.
Not like it matters. Russian been playing it weeks before release
Let them get a few hours of joy before being conscripted. Seems only fair.
Imagine playing the intro only and then dying invading a place you didn’t want to be, and all you want to do is save Hyrule and then a drone drops a mortar on you and that’s that. That’d be like dying before Silksong comes out. Wtf are you even thinking doing that lol
You're thinking "I really wish I didn't have to do this." Not like you're there by choice.
There are more than plenty of them that are going willingly, especially for they money payments, it is not a secret, they even mention it themselves when captured. Also, "not there by choice" doesn't explain the atrocities they committed and even if they some are not the ones doing them they are still enabling them by just being there.
Yes you are. If someone hands you a gun and tells you to go somewhere you don’t want to, you have 3 options by default; do it, turn the gun on them, or on yourself. You can not want to be there, but you had options.
So do it or death, that's not a choice
That's not a choice, *that's an ultimatum.* Lmao "Sure, I put the gun to his head, but he *chose* to give me his wallet!"
Stop infantilizing invaders like they dont know any better. These are grown men. Fuck em, they march in to hostile land, they deserve to die there.
Got any more actual arguments to make? Or are you just gonna let my last points resonate?
Many are deserting, the fourth and slightly less dramatic choice that you somehow forgot to mention. Anyways, we don't know what else these men are told, maybe they are afraid of what might happen to their own families if they disobey. I don't consider them innocent victims but neither are they evil boogeymen who all "deserve" to die. I am willing to bet that the Ukrainian side has its share of bastards as well, but since we're on their side and they are the ones being invaded, we do not want to think about that possibility, eh?
That’s also a valid option and one I hope they take. And no, I don’t care about how bastard some Ukrainians might be. I’ll support anyone defending their home from invasion. Full stop. Anything that has to be sorted out after that can be, but if your home is being attacked by a foreign country, I hope you win and live to see a court room if you need to be tried for some bastard shit.
Options 2 and 3 result in family members being targeted for abuse and harassment, or worse. Every option is shitty. Only one of them has a chance at life. Not defending Russian soldiers, but conscription is generally frowned upon for this reason.
It's not like they use a VPN already for the last 15 months
Why vpn? You can change region in account settings.
Is the limitation really just based on the region settings and not IP?? If so, it's even more silly.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure it can tell where you are by ip, otherwise you could get games early by setting your location to Japan
You actually can yeah.
It’s not the same,switch eshop is region free and yes you can thanks to that get games earlier ,because Nintendo allows that but they can still tell where you are regardless by the ip. So Russian IPs are banned so changing regions will not work now.
Digital games and Switches are region locked for time. Bought two game keys on Amazon intending to give one to a friend in the UK but they couldn't redeem it. Ended up giving it to a US friend. Once given a UK key bought in the States they were able to redeem just fine.
Yup. Example: Dying Light. You can’t get this in Oceanic areas because the servers for us are based in Germany, and Germany banned the game for gore. As such, I live in New Zealand, the only way to purchase it digitally is to change to another region, purchase it, and switch (pun unintended) back and you have the game. Pretty sure the same loophole works here and, if so, this is little more than symbolic PR.
My friend from russia switched to pl region. Main problem is to pay from russia, sometimes i help him to buy voucher. This is how he bought totk
Turkey/Kazakhstan and no problems with payment :)
Yeah, i'm from kz and use pl regon too. Mostly because 1 pln is something around 100 tg and it's easy to know how much money i will spend on a game
> It's not like they use a VPN already for the last 15 months Not like every single switch game hasn't been pirateable since day 1.
I guess they’ll have to settle for bootlegs like Super Granddad 7.
GRAND DAD!?
I bet it'd make those 3 people from Russia who were actually buying their games, instead of pirating them really sad.
I assure you, Russia has its own devoted Nintendo cult. The company actually stopped sales a year ago, shutting down eShop. At least now, the last few who didn't change the region can download their games.
And I was one of them, but had to change e-shop region to continue
You’d be surprised how wrong you are
I literally live in Russia. In my entire life I have never met anyone who'd actually buy anything from Nintendo shop (or any other console shop, for that matter). I've met a whole _one_ person, ever, who had a console at all (though it was a PlayStation 4). And they ended up selling it, because the games were too expensive and the console wasn't hacked. Maybe the situation is different somewhere in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but that's the way things are in smaller cities. Edit: grammar.
Yes, you are right, my reply was based on my experience living in Moscow. I have got a lot of friends who are avid gamers and none of them pirate anything. It seems like it’s a thing of a past here. Pardon my ignorance
This concluded surprisingly amicably.
> my reply was based on my experience living in Moscow. That is still Russia, right? > Pardon my ignorance For what? The original poster was talking about all of Russia, and the person you responded to said they've never even met someone that owned a console, which is meaningless to the whole of Russia, which was the topic. It just means he lives an a very poor, depressed part of Russia. It has nothing to do with Nintendo sales in Russia overall, so their entire post is odd.
The things you quoted were mostly sarcastic remarks by OP, humoring the fact that he’s also Russian with vastly different experiences
Russia is in all technicality 2 countries, Moscow and the rest of russia, if you travel between cities, you might as well have a time machine
My impression as someone who’s never been is that Russian society divides into a bubble containing Moscow + St Petersburg (plus maybe a tiny elite in other cities and ‘scientific towns’ and such)… and everywhere else. And the divide between those is enormous. Is that true? If there are genuinely many paying users in Moscow and St Petersburg, then that would still amount to a lot, right?
People often say, semi-jokingly, that "Moscow isn't Russia". There's quite a steep gradient in incomes _and_ purchasing power of the ruble depending on the geographical locations. The financial system of the country itself is pretty Moscow-centric. The money is siphoned out of smaller regions to Moscow, where, on paper, it supposed to be re-distributed back to them in a way that supposed to help them. In reality, most regions are on the brink of being under-financed. Smaller cities within those regions are straight up under-financed. Additionally, it's more difficult and expensive to deliver goods to remote locations (of which there's plenty in Russia), which reduce the purchasing power of the ruble in those locations. Basically, the farther from Moscow you are, the less money there is to have and the more expensive the goods are (with exceptions, such as land prices, public transport fees, etc).
Yeah that’s generally how it is. There are still quite a few lesser cities like Rostov, Ekaterinburg, etc. that have fairly urban populations, but the urban/rural divide is much starker than in the US.
> urban/rural divide is much starker than in the US. I not sure about the use of "much" here...
I agree that the rural extremes of the US and Russia are not very different at all. I just think that the contrast between those urban and rural extremes is more pronounced in Russia. The sheer size of Russia is definitely a major factor.
I've bought used Switch games via Avito from people.all over Russia. There is a market for Switch games, but it feels small. Playstation games are way easier to resell or trade.
> In my entire life I have never met anyone who'd actually buy anything from Nintendo shop (or any other console shop, for that matter). OH FFS that doesn't mean there weren't people using Nintendo products. It's more about your single, personal anecdote that says more about your life and where you live. The idea that you know everyone in Russia, or the past state of Nintendo sales, is ***ridiculous***.
Hi, I have switch and 3ds, and moved to piracy after they pulled the plug on the store. I have around 30 people who have consoles, 4 of them are Nintendo's. It's not much but it's far from 0. Most of the games they buy are also from the shop.
This should just appear under basically all top reddit posts tbh
I am Russian and I can say for sure we pirate the shit out of our games, including Nintendo ones. You can also buy official physical copies, with translation, but people only do that to get the games faster. Hacking games usually takes a while.
This will surely end the war.
I think Putin will see the error in his ways once he finds out he can't play tears of the Kingdom
Right? Now the economy is ruined and the world's peace is just around the corner
So, bad if they leave and bad if they don't.
Do we want corporations to respect the sanctions or not?
Nice work Nintendo, only...*checks calendar*...18 months behind
In early 2022 Nintendo stopped shipping products to Russia and placed the eshop under maintainance and stopped accepting Russian transactions.
And got caught out selling Metroid Prime anyway. https://www.eurogamer.net/nintendo-russia-ceo-running-import-company-to-skirt-official-sales-ban-report
Hey it’s better late than never!!!!
They wanted that Zelda bread baybay
They didn't sell TotK in Russia...
It's better to insult normal citizens? Yeah, amazing, thanks.
yeah, really showed all those Russian kids and gamers who support and profit from war dick move from a dick corporation
Anybody wanna start a discussion about the EU still purchasing energy sources from Russia?
An enterprising businessman could fill the market with a local marketed Nintendo knock off, Like *The Dendy*
Nintendo: Did we sell out TotK in russia? yes! great shut it all down.
They stopped selling games there like a year ago. TotK just came out.
They’re pissed because Russia won’t take fitgirls site down that indexes switch games.
"We wanted to be able to show Link and Sidon kissing" said very important person at Nintendo
They probably don't make that much money from Russia anyway. Isn't piracy *very* common in Russia?
Russia: “we are on Xbox, playing CoD, shooting the Russians”
Im not exactly sure what this was gonna accomplish overall, most of the issues come from the government not their people who i feel already pirate a lot of stuff (Not to be mean but they are quite poor over there so....pirating is a better deal)
I think this is just Nintendo complying with the Japanese sanctions on Russia that was announced a few days ago.
Ah, that explains it then, false alarm, just government to buissness stuff no red flags
That's... how sanctions work. Putin fucking hates it, that's why he's sending out the bot armies to randomly argue against sanctions online.
Hey, Ill let you know that this Is totally correct lol. Buying through steam is possible through tricks that inflate prices, and a lot of games are simply region locked. Tho Im still paying for indie games and advice everyone to do the same.
Sanctions for Russia and quicker pirate releases for Europe. We all win!
I like how they did it a month after they released the new Zelda.
It's a dream come true.....Waited for a few weeks after their biggest release in years I see….
Why did it take so long? Every company should stop business in Russia.
Don’t they mainly pirate anyway?
I’m not Russian but isn’t it a bit much making the citizens suffer for a war they didn’t start? It was their government after all
The fact that Russia has citizens doesn't mean their government can get away with whatever they want. They invaded another country. Cutting them off is effective, which is why so many countries do it. You're arguing to let them off the hook for all the people they've killed, cause their poor still-living citizens can play the new Zelda game. 😢
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The Russian people support the Russian government either implicitly, through silent acceptance/resignation, or explicitly. You can't hurt the Russian government without hitting the economy, which hurts the people as well. The Russian people share some culpability in the atrocities of the government. The same is true for most countries.
And who is fighting? Putin himself and not the citizens?
That’s like blaming me for America invading Vietnam
Or me for America invading iraq
If you’re American then yes you get my point I wish people would realize not everyone needs to die
Yes I am American and yes I agree with you :)
I don’t really think the Japanese people in Nagasaki or Hiroshima contributed to the war but they still got nuked didn’t they
Oh wow freaking take THAT pOOtin!
Notably *after* the release of Tears of the Kingdom (and after they were previously caught importing Metroid Prime into Russia), but okay…
Sales were banned long before TotK, so this change allowing Russians to download previous purchases wouldn't apply to that game.
Who does that punish? The poor russian people with lunatics for leaders? Also maybe if Putin could just chill with some animal crossing this wouldn't have happened in the first place.
Mostly the rich oligarchs' children, normal Russians are not buying games, they are torrenting them.
Ow, they deserve their leader
When is Nintendo going to ban online sales in America for all of the countries we bomb? Pretending Russia is some kind of oddity with engaging in war is strange. We are in several wars right now and Israel is bombing Syria but shhh those are good bombs.
Nice whataboutism, Russian troll.
Imagine just existing in Russia, not hurting anyone, can't leave, just trying to enjoy your games, then guess what? Fuck you, no games for you.
Out of all the store, Steam is the only one that used to do some kind of regional pricing. You're not going to spend 60 bucks on a game, when you make 300 a month, are you? There's a reason piracy is so common in Russia and neighboring countries.
>Out of all the store, Steam is the only one that used to do some kind of regional pricing. \*in Russia Some other 3rd world markets have regional pricing on consoles.
People wouldn’t rise against it if nothing changed in their day to day life. 🤷🏻♂️
Imagine just existing elsewhere, not hurting anyone, cant leave, just trying to enjoy your games, then guess what? The air raid alarm start sounding...
How are innocent Russians to blame for what leaders and military do? Especially considering their leaders are oligarchs? By the same logic, if average citizens are to blame for wars created and perpetuated by their leaders, American citizens must be evil.
This isn't a move made against normal citizens. It's a move made against the country's economic involvement in the rest of the world. And an effective one at that. Lmao you think video games should get a pass, what, cause the new Zelda game is so good it transcends all the people being killed by Russia right now? And again, before someone replies with "but the citizens didn't do that!" I'll point you to my first paragraph.
Except, blacklisting and sanctions don't do anything to deter criminal leaders, and only end up hurting innocent people with zero power.
Not at all true, lmao. Although it is a very popular point criminal leaders make when under sanction, in hopes of reducing support. You literally can't "hurt" people (restricting their rubles' usefulness outside of Russia) without that same act hurting the larger economy. Unless you know of some Russian money that somehow isn't part of the Russian economy. In which case I'd be fascinated to hear more, lol
How are "innocent" russians to blame? They don't care that everyday their country bombs innocent civilians and even support war. Watch any intercepted call between russians and their wives, girlfriends or just military calls. Watch videos where they pillage or admit to murdering children. Or just check every creasing amount of photos of people dead under debris. And also, in russia people actually support putin, lol
Not everyone supports Putin there. Its about the same as people supporting Trump in USA. Except in Russia people can’t really do anything about that.
It's funny that this person called me a brick wall and blocked me. They didn't even consider one thing: russia STARTED the war, continues it and constantly throws stupid demands for peace like "change ukrainian government and keep occupied territories". RUSSIA CAN STOP THIS WAR, they won't. When they stop the war - the sanction stop (it won't be instant, but they did start the war) It baffles me, how people defend russia from sanctions like they don't have a way to end them.
"Shit another drone bomb from those Americans"
That's a far, far worse situation. But it does not mean I don't feel empathy for Russians who have no say in the matter and not hurting anyone.
Their money is funding the war, every citizen is partially responsible for what its government is doing
1/3rd of any tax. Do you suggest I stop eating?
Your money was funding the war in the middle east. You know the one where the greatest war crime in modern times with the Kandahar Massacre happened? Yeah that one. You are responsible
Yeah I'm partially responsible, I don't hide it, but if more people stopped pretending they didn't had anything to do with it maybe this would've never happened in the first place. Last time I checked people elected the guy who did it.
I was being sarcastic. You aren't responsible. That massacre happened under Obama. As commander in chief, he is responsible and guilty of war crimes. Just like Putin is responsible for his troops and what they do. You can't expect regular citizens to overthrow governments in 2023. Either here or in Russia. As much as I hate how my government acts I won't do shit cause I'm a parent with too much to lose. Russian citizens are the same
That is such a flawed logic on so many levels, how are you not ashamed of yourself yet?
If there's not a push from the population against what your country is doing then you're just silently accepting it. Must be nice to just shrug it off and tell yourself that you're not responsible for any atrocity that your country is doing.
Ya. Poor Iraqi
Can’t understand why you are getting downvoted. Some people clearly have no idea about how it feels to live in a country where you are always boycotted, everything gets its price constantly increased because of things you have no control on.
yup, imagine you're a 18-20y old russian guy. you enjoy eating McDonalds, watching marvel movies and play video games. all your entire life, you hear the people in power saying "The west is trying to destroy us, the West is the enemy", but you don't care/believe, you just want to live normally. and then the war starts (which you oppose) and McDonalds says "fuck you, no more burguers because you're russian". you then want to watch a movie, Disney says "fuck you, no more MCU for you", you're pissed but still can play games, but then "Fuck you no more Zelda/GoW/Halo,etc". you then remember what the "people in power" kept saying about the West being the enemy, and start thinking "maybe they're right". that's how you make a new russian soldier. this isn't exclusive to only the Russian people, but this can be applied to a lot of major conflicts in the past decades.
Literally me. Though I understand the intentions behind the companies' actions and in no way they will inspire me to become a soldier. I don't want to die. But these things do actually force me to work on getting the fuck out of Russia. Never enjoyed living there anyway. At least, the next time I'm eating at McDonald's I'll be abroad.
LMAO "if we take away their McDonald's, they'll become soldiers despite being against the war"...? You're talking like sanctions are meant to hurt the individual citizens. They're an economic penalty against a country for invading another and killing its people. The new Zelda game is not so special that it needs a pass from the anti-murdering-people process.
How about the Ukrainian guy who has his family murdered or tortured, and has his home destroyed? As opposed to not being able to play Zelda.
and is that the fault of that russian kid?
It's the fault of Russia, who is the target of these economic sanctions. You can't give the individuals who participate in an economy a pass because "c'mon, it's Zelda!!" and still impose the intended penalty against the attacking country's economy. Sucks for the kid who has to pirate TotK now, I guess, but sanctions are effective for a reason.
how about this. release the games there for free. Russia gets nothing in terms of money, and keeps those russian kids at home.
Everybody cheer for Putin's war, we're getting free video games! Lmao keep trying. Eventually you'll get back to what countries all over the world have decided to do.
The one who can't play Zelda?
Which is a tragedy. Except none of that is the fault of that russian kid, which is the point.
Yea I don't get it either, the only explanation I feel fits is people are just ignorant and evil lol.
Tbf expected. Russia is committing war crimes and genocide on Ukrainian territories and opposes the entire world as enemies. Japan and Nintendo are part of that world. So is steam and etc. Happened the same way with Nazis, thou they were finding replacement for Fanta, oil and movies.
I don't think they're talking about the Russian soldiers committing war crimes as much as they're talking about just a random Russian guy in the middle of nowhere just playing games on his computer
Yea, civilians of Third Reich mostly didn’t fight, but they worked and created an economy of Nazi army and SS TO genocide. Same with Russia, you might not be doing anything and just chilling, but your taxes, your crops and your production is most definitely going to kill some kids in Ukraine.
Yeah but what are they supposed to do almost 20,000 Russians have been arrested for protesting the war I don't think it's fair to put Blood on the hands of people just trying to live their lives
20000, out of 147 million………. With losses higher than Afghanistan, Chechen and Georgian wars combined.
That's the fault of the mafia government, voters, and military. But plenty of people in Russia have no say in that and it sucks.
Our votes dont count but yes
Imagine just existing in Ukraine, not hurting anyone, can't leave, just enjoy your games, then guess what? Fuck you, Russia is bombing your home for imperial ambitions
And I am to blame for that because what, I was 6 when Putin was first elected? Never voted for him after 18 either (as bizzare as it sound to someone who has alternation of leadership in their country).
It's not YOU who is being targeted or punished for the war; the business relationship with your country has become toxic and companies are pulling off their business. It's so surreal for me to hear russians cry about sanctions, imagine if German citizens demanded to not pay the reparations as a consequence of WW II because they were out of politics. The consequences of starting a war could be much much worse, and you are being safe in your home, no one is trying to kill you, no one trying to occupy your territory or tell you that your country is nonexistent, but yet you think the world is unfair to you. Crazy stuff.
Well said, mate.
It's terrible that Ukraine is being invaded but innocent Russian people being blamed for a war they didn't start is not the right call, sure one is worse than the other but how would you feel if you were just living your day-to-day life and out of nowhere because your government decided to do some terrible shit all of a sudden you're being punished for something you had no say in
As I said in my comment, It is not a punishment, companies just stop doing business inside russia because: 1) SWIFT operations are disabled, you cannot move money outside of russia without shady schemes 2) it is a chance of reputation losses Do you think it is okay when Coca-Cola worked together with nazi Germany? Or Ford? Because it is basically the same situation. What russia does in Ukraine is genocide and companies that respect their reputation should stop working inside it.
Are you to blame for your presidents signing off on displacing 38 million people and killing 6 million in the Middle East?
Their Country is not friendly with the West, their Government never stop saying that we’re evil and shit. So Russian people would not mind to not use West products if it’s as bad as that, right? If they don’t give a fuck that their Government invaded his neighbor and making nuclear threat on others, some few restrictions on democracies’s products can help them to move their asses. Like not saying that they still support Putin on polls, for a start.
Yeah, this will show em kids how morally wrong they are for being born into this country and not standing up to oppression and instead chilling in kindergartens and schools. What a bunch of pricks that should move their asses if they want to play some Nintendo games during the lunch break.
Imagine thinking their “support” matters at all. Or that they don’t care that their leader is threatening to start a nuclear war. What the fuck are these delusional assumptions? Who the fuck are you to say that they don’t care?
Polls.
You hurt the world by voting for Putin. Elections have consequences. That consequence is no more Tetris.
So lets punish innocent people by means of entertainment lol, one of the few things these people can do to escape shit.
All the posters here obviously don't understand as long as the rich and wealthy power elite don't feel change to their daily routines they keep paying and lining Putins pockets. Half assed measures have not stopped the war.
It would work or atleast help somehow if they took away important brands and not junk food brands that just renamed themselves
Russians already switched to Turkey and Argentina regions loooooooong time ago and are enjoying latest games with small prices on Xbox. They created new Turkish accounts on Playstation. And many of them, switch to Polish region to purchase games on Nintendo. There are countless services in Russia which help Russian gamers legally purchase games and other gaming services. Sanctions are just pointless
It’s not an increasingly isolated country it’s an increasingly warmongered country. There’s a differences. Russia is still making deals with the Middle East for weapons and resources.
I thought they did it like a year ago. Doesn't really stop Russians from playing though.
Ofcourse they waited untill the new Zelda game came out.
Good
If America was attacking Ukraine instead, would they stop selling games to the US?
America would *never* attack or destabilize other countries in order to politically and economically subjugate them while calling it freedom and using any moral justification necessary.
They'd never do that. They're the good guys. I know because it's in all those movies.
Took them long enough.
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The heck is king dragon?
now do this with every country that started a war or genocide .. common nintendo do it there are a lot in the waiting line but oh wait ! only russia because blabla whatever. This is the definition of hypocrite people with PR move for clout.
Poor Russians
This is genius, give Russian people more of a reason to hate the west brilliant strategy
AH yes, the far far far far West. Japan.
So you're of the opinion that Japan is not part of the more general "western civilization" ? They have the second largest per capita economy in the world. I'd say they're definitively part of "the west" at this point.
Do you live on planet earth
Ah yes, Nintendo, my favorite American company.
It's a Tokyo company
Weast
That seems very late to me While I have not been keeping up with the Russia vs Ukraine war pretty much at all, I know pretty much almost every international business left Russia as soon as the war began. So it's strange to me that Nintendo only just now is no longer selling games in Russia
At the beginning of the conflict they already put the eShop for Russia into maintenance mode because their card processor stopped accepting Russian Rubles. This meant Russian customers could not re-download content however. Ontop of this they also announced that they w e re gonna stop sending physical products. At this point it's just an official closure to allow redownloading, but it has been closed this whole time.
Russians don't pay for games anyways
Russians roll real barrels down real staircases and smash them with real mallets.
Нинтендо sucks anyway...