Steam is holding a Games From Russia festival. In our opinion, this is Valve’s direct support for the genocide of Ukrainians
Yesterday, Games From Russia Festival 2024 started on Steam. And although it is supposedly organized by an independent studio, such events are always held only with the permission and under the supervision of Steam. So, in our opinion, this is Valve’s direct support for the genocide of Ukrainians. And it’s disgusting.
Yes, Russia is the third largest market for Steam/Valve after China and the United States in terms of copies sold and the tenth largest in terms of money. That’s why Valve has been neutral on Russian games since the beginning of the full-scale war.
But organizing a festival of Russian games at a time when Russia is killing Ukrainians, raping women, and kidnapping children every day is extremely cynical. It’s like sponsoring the construction of gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. The date of the festival, Victory Day, is also cynical.
Any money that Russian developers receive is money that goes to taxes in Russia. A significant portion of which goes to finance the army, security forces, weapons development, and the production of missiles that kill Ukrainians. So every penny you send to Russia is a penny to kill Ukrainians. And Valve does this without any moral or ethical concerns. It’s just business. But still, for Ukrainian gamers, Valve is a saint, but Epic Games is pure evil.
As for the Steam approval process, it takes about 3-4 months. Valve checks the page, games, texts, images, recommends certain changes, and approves the date. It is an interactive process with several steps, so all this definitely did not pass by Steam admins.
Well, we will try to draw the attention of the world’s media to this cynical behavior of Valve, and for readers of the Russian festival page it may be a good reason to add games from the aggressor country to the blacklist.