A rising number of gaming publishers are refusing to do business in Russia. In response to the invasion of Ukraine, both Activision Blizzard and Epic Games have announced that sales in the nation will be halted. In a March 4 news release, Activision Blizzard CEO Daniel Alegre claimed the business will "be stopping new sales of and in our games in Russia while this conflict continues." This implies that Russians who have already purchased the publisher's games won't be able to make in-game purchases, though they should still be able to play them.
Activision Blizzard and Epic Games aren't the only ones who have stopped selling in the country. Microsoft has banned "any new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia," as part of its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Xbox consoles, Microsoft-published games, the Xbox Cloud Gaming service, and the rest of the company's products are included.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation, has been a vocal supporter of tech industry sanctions, writing an open letter to "all game development companies and esports platforms" urging them to sanction Russia, claiming that "in 2022, modern technology is perhaps the best answer to tanks, multiple rocket launchers (hrad), and missiles."
In halting sales to Russia, Activision and Epic join companies like Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and CD Projekt Red. Russia isn’t a small market either. According to a 2021 estimate from Statista, the country, with approximately $2.7 billion in industry revenue that year, was the eighth largest market for video games.