The developer of the Ukrainian game "Echo of Pripyat" planned sales in Russia - "to raise money for the AFU"

Currently, Chornozem Interactive, the studio behind the "Echo of Pripyat" walking simulator, publicly apologized and stated that sales in Russia were canceled after negotiations with the team.

A scandal erupted in the Ukrainian game dev community: one of the partners of Chornozem Interactive, the scriptwriter Andrii Chebankov, discovered that the game was being advertised on the Russian Vkontakte, and subsequent screenshots from the work chat only confirmed the studio's plans to sell the game in Russia:

Echo of Pripyat. I thought a little and decided that the world should still know. I didn't sign an NDA, names are blurred.

It all started with the fact that in the morning I was very "pleased" with the message that the development manager was seriously considering allowing sales in Russia because... pic.twitter.com/9afvcVnvQS

— Andrii Chebankov (@anomalypryt) July 9, 2024

In the correspondence, the development manager stated that sales in Russia were planned "initially", and also compared their own game to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Chernobyl's Heart, where unlike GSC Game World's creation, allegedly there would be no Russian language. The idea of the manager was criticized by the rest of the Chornozem Interactive team, and some decided to leave the studio after such news:

Fortunately, his idea did not resonate with the hearts of the team, and some even left. Including me. It's good that I didn't have time to do anything, because this is fucked up shit. pic.twitter.com/GV3GoWGv7P

— Andrii Chebankov (@anomalypryt) July 9, 2024

Following the note, a comment appeared (presumably from the same development manager):

"Dear Andrii, thank you for deciding to try to destroy several months of hard work and sleepless nights for us. We were going to realize the funds from sales in Russia in Ukraine, mainly for the Armed Forces, you know that."

The studio posted a statement on the game's official Twitter account, apologizing for their plans. The post states that the chat screenshots do not reflect the full picture, and the money earned from game sales was planned to be used to help Ukraine.

"At first, we really considered the possibility of entering the Russian market. This was associated with the desire to find funds to finance humanitarian initiatives aimed at helping Ukraine in connection with the war and helping the Armed Forces. However, after careful analysis and reflection, we decided to abandon this idea. This decision was made after a conversation with our team."

The full statement can be found in the post:

We apologize! pic.twitter.com/keJi47hlam

— Echo of Prypiat (@EchoOfPripyat) July 9, 2024

It remains to be hoped that the initiative to sell the game in Russia belonged to one person, who, unfortunately, in this way, did a disservice to "Echo of Pripyat" in Ukraine. We have sent a request for comment to the studio to clarify this point, as many people were involved in the work on the game, and most really might not have known about the employer's plans. We have not received a response yet, but will update the text as soon as it arrives.