Prices for Garry's Mod and Rust are soaring in Russia to benefit Ukrainian organizations

Author

Arunava Mandal

Date

Mar, 09.2022

The price of Garry's Mod and Rust is skyrocketing in Russia, thanks to what developer Garry Newman called "opportunism" among gamers eager to profit from the Russian ruble's depreciation as a result of sanctions put on the country for its invasion of Ukraine. Newman also promised to donate a large sum to charity to help war victims. Gary's modification is now 750 pesos ($6.40), up from 365 pesos (which is an increase from the standard price of 249 pesos until September 2021), and rust is no longer a problem. It is now 3,000 ($25.65), up from 1,465 previously. This is also the result of a price increase in September 2021: earlier, it cost only £725. 

Newman added that the price hike is mostly intended to discourage people from utilizing VPNs to obtain inexpensive copies of his games, particularly Rust. The ruble has plummeted in value as a result of the heavy sanctions put on Russia as a result of the invasion of Ukraine: five years ago, the ruble was worth less than 20 cents, which may not seem like much, but it's still a lot more than it's worth. At the moment, it's worth less than a penny. This implies that people who use a VPN to fool Steam into thinking they're in Russia may get Rust for less than $13, significantly below the standard price of $40 in North America, before the price rises.

As a result of its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is becoming increasingly isolated on all fronts: Visa and Mastercard have blocked Russian financial institutions, PayPal is no longer accepting new users in Russia, and companies ranging from CD Projekt and Electronic Arts to Microsoft, Airbnb, Spotify, Volkswagen, Oracle, Netflix, Nike, and Boeing have limited or halted their operations in the country.