They have other approaches, like welcoming famous actors (Gérard Depardieu) to bring them French food
Russian Game Developers & Ukraine Crisis
- Thread starter Couchpotato
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They have other approaches, like welcoming famous actors (Gérard Depardieu) to bring them French food
Now it seems that Valve's bank would be imposing sanctions against Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and suspending payments to the developers in those countries. It's still unclear and without public announcement but it looks genuine enough.
As if they didn't have enough problems already.
https://wccftech.com/steam-cuts-off-developer-publisher-payments-to-russia-belarus-and-ukraine/
As if they didn't have enough problems already.
https://wccftech.com/steam-cuts-off-developer-publisher-payments-to-russia-belarus-and-ukraine/
I'll continue my monologue: this should give some hope to STALKER 2's fans.
That got me thinking (article in Ars Technica):
FCC puts Kaspersky on security threat list, says it poses "unacceptable risk"
I've used this protection for years, then stopped with Windows 10. It was much better than the heavy Norton or the terrible McAfee. But I suppose it makes sense, even if it's somewhat cliché, you don't invite the wolf home to diner.
What I'm wondering is: will Russian developers follow? After all, we know that platforms like GOG have had security issues for years granting administrative rights, and GOG has never been willing to fix it. It wouldn't surprise me if Steam had vulnerabilities either.
I don't believe developers would willingly do that, but who knows. And that's what security authorities may think one day.
FCC puts Kaspersky on security threat list, says it poses "unacceptable risk"
I've used this protection for years, then stopped with Windows 10. It was much better than the heavy Norton or the terrible McAfee. But I suppose it makes sense, even if it's somewhat cliché, you don't invite the wolf home to diner.
What I'm wondering is: will Russian developers follow? After all, we know that platforms like GOG have had security issues for years granting administrative rights, and GOG has never been willing to fix it. It wouldn't surprise me if Steam had vulnerabilities either.
I don't believe developers would willingly do that, but who knows. And that's what security authorities may think one day.
That got me thinking (article in Ars Technica):
FCC puts Kaspersky on security threat list, says it poses "unacceptable risk"
I've used this protection for years, then stopped with Windows 10. It was much better than the heavy Norton or the terrible McAfee. But I suppose it makes sense, even if it's somewhat cliché, you don't invite the wolf home to diner.
What I'm wondering is: will Russian developers follow? After all, we know that platforms like GOG have had security issues for years granting administrative rights, and GOG has never been willing to fix it. It wouldn't surprise me if Steam had vulnerabilities either.
I don't believe developers would willingly do that, but who knows. And that's what security authorities may think one day.
I'm not quite sure I follow you. What does GOG and Steam have to do with Russia? Do you mean that alla Russian developers of software might get "banned" due to being a security risk?
Kaspersky, as an anti-virus, is embedded into the OS, so it could potentially compromise the system it's installed on.
GOG has a collection of vulnerability issues that allows for example to escalate the privilege of executed code, or to modify and restart the Galaxy service to compromise a computer too. This could come typically from a game on that platform. Steam has security issues as well, like the old buffer overflow attack.
Of course, people don't often install games on their business systems so the risk is lower than an anti-virus. But they often connect to their work place from home, especially after these last two years.
If the government puts pressure on a Russian game developer to add malicious code and update their game through those platforms, they could use that to do some damage or to collect information.
At this point, perhaps any software coming from Russia could be considered harmful and potentially banned, if we follow this reasoning. Not only anti-virus programs.
Alright, now I get what you mean. But in that case, shouldn't Google Play and App Store be placed on that list due to lots of apps having malicious code in it?
Maybe. I know little of Apple and iPhones, but the Android apps don't rely on a 3rd-party launcher like Galaxy that the provider has refused to patch for years. I think it's secure enough, but if users buy an app and give it permission to scan their emails and the contacts, for example, that's on them.
It's only theoretical anyway. Seeing how Russia is disorganized, I doubt they could pull this off, or that they would pressure a developer to do that sort of things.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Yup, I've tried Galaxy on GoG once, didn't like it and simply returned to the regular way of downloading their games. Still works fine for me.
Another link for the thread.
Wargaming to shut down businesses in Russia and Belarus
Link - https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/wargaming-to-shut-down-businesses-in-russia-and-belarus
Wargaming to shut down businesses in Russia and Belarus
Link - https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/wargaming-to-shut-down-businesses-in-russia-and-belarus
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Sometime in the last month, Owlcat changed their company location in their Twitter bio to read "Nicosia, Cyprus" instead of "Moscow, Russia" :lol:
Now: https://twitter.com/OwlcatGames
How it was in February: http://web.archive.org/web/20220215104017/https://twitter.com/OwlcatGames
Now: https://twitter.com/OwlcatGames
How it was in February: http://web.archive.org/web/20220215104017/https://twitter.com/OwlcatGames
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Yep just a name change but technically still a Russian developer.
Probably rent a small studio as a front in Cyprus.
Probably rent a small studio as a front in Cyprus.
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This part was discussed a bit in some other thread here in the past (the one where Eye shut down the discussion). Redglyph insisted that they're a Cyprus company because their corporate registration is in Cyprus. Chances are pretty good that they don't even have a real office in Cyprus, but it seems hard to find out. Historically, Cyprus was a popular corporate tax haven for Eastern Europe for decades, but it isn't as good as it used to be.
Their website in February, talking about their company, said "with offices located in Cyprus and Russia":
http://web.archive.org/web/20220215145653/https://owlcat.games/
Today, in the same place on the site, it says "with our headquarters in Cyprus and more than 120 employees spread across offices in various countries".
Lots of rejigging going on to try to erase any connection with their actual country :lol:
But this reminds me... About a month ago, I got email from Owlcat saying my Pathfinder:WOTR collectors edition would be delayed indefinitely, because UPS will no longer ship from Russia. Since we've been waiting 7 months already, maybe they should just ship these from their Cyprus HQ
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Yep this whole thread was a spin-off from that discussion.
Whats even weirder is the Russian developer of the Atom RPG's also changed their name and are now supposedly based in Cyprus. They mostly do development online though.
Link - https://atentgames.com/
Whats even weirder is the Russian developer of the Atom RPG's also changed their name and are now supposedly based in Cyprus. They mostly do development online though.
Link - https://atentgames.com/
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I had completely forgotten about that :lol:Yep this whole thread was a spin-off from that discussion.
Interesting find. Not sure the name change is related to this, maybe they just needed a real company name now they're moving onto a 2nd game? After all, their original name was "Atom Team" or something such.
But, last year their Twitter bio said they were "based in Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Latvia":
http://web.archive.org/web/20210120040708/https://twitter.com/the_atomgame
Now they've changed it to "based in Poland, Ukraine, Cyprus and Latvia".
https://twitter.com/the_atomgame
Also they changed their "location" from "The Soviet Wastes" to "Ukraine". Oddly enough, the name "Ukraine" there appears to be in Russian instead of Ukrainian? (Just going off Google translate)
Anyway, they're likely using Cyprus as a proxy for all their Russian employees, just like Owlcat seems to be doing?
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Well spotted @Stingray;
Yeah, the devs are in Moscow, I was mentioning the legal status because that was an important distinction in the discussion back then re: income.
I would bet it was only for the same reason they had initially registered in Cyprus, to get a financial / legal advantage. Or in case they wanted to change their twitter profile one day
Still, they need to pay the devs, I have no idea how they'd manage to transfer money right now. Maybe by homing pigeons?
Yeah, the devs are in Moscow, I was mentioning the legal status because that was an important distinction in the discussion back then re: income.
I would bet it was only for the same reason they had initially registered in Cyprus, to get a financial / legal advantage. Or in case they wanted to change their twitter profile one day
Still, they need to pay the devs, I have no idea how they'd manage to transfer money right now. Maybe by homing pigeons?
Been a while but here you go.
Fearing Unity And Unreal Abandonment, Russia May Build Its Own Game Engine
Link - https://kotaku.com/russia-unreal-unity-game-engine-development-ukraine-1849184860
Fearing Unity And Unreal Abandonment, Russia May Build Its Own Game Engine
Link - https://kotaku.com/russia-unreal-unity-game-engine-development-ukraine-1849184860
It would be interesting to see some competition coming from there. Unity is doing badly and merging with a shady malware company, hopefully they won't last too long and so that will leave us with Unreal and a few open-source engines like Godot.
Russians are quite good in the software area so I wouldn't be surprised to see something very competitive against Unreal. But it's a complex business to support so many configurations and use-cases so it won't be built in a few days.
Twenty years ago I would say it wouldn't be possible, but game and software development has gotten better. I use to hate Russian RPGs as they were garbage.
They once had bad translations, to many bugs, and other negatives.
They once had bad translations, to many bugs, and other negatives.