Activision Blizzard recognized the problem of attracting personnel. In the context of litigation and increased pressure, it is difficult for a company to retain old and hire new qualified employees. If the difficulties drag on, it will hit the whole business hard.This was reported by Axios with reference to the recently published Activision Blizzard report for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The list of companies that have stopped selling their games in Russia is getting longer. Now it includes Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts (EA).

Microsoft has announced its plans for Russia. The IT corporation stops “all new sales” in the country. This applies to both its products and services.

A number of human rights organizations have expressed concern about the purchase of Activision Blizzard, which Microsoft plans to make. They demanded that the US Federal Trade Commission carefully study the deal in order to prevent possible consequences for the market. One of the reasons is the direct threat of competition.This is stated in an open letter published on March 1.

Gaming companies around the world are actively supporting Ukraine. In particular, money for humanitarian aid was allocated by Ubisoft, Unity and 11 bit studios. We looked at who else has recently decided to make similar donations. UPDATED: Added information about Room 8 Group.

New sanctions. This time the game. The Polish holding CD Projekt is going to stop selling its games on the territory of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus.

Unity came out in support of Ukraine, deciding to donate $623 thousand to several charitable organizations. The company also organized additional fundraising using a special set of assets.Unity made such a statement on March 2.

Yesterday it became known that the US stock exchange Nasdaq temporarily withdrew shares of five companies from trading in connection with US sanctions against Russia. Nexters, officially based in Cyprus, was also blocked. UPDATED: The company says that Nexters is not subject to sanctions.

In recent days, Ubisoft has prepared a number of measures to support its Ukrainian employees. In particular, the company will provide housing in neighboring countries to employees and their families. Also, the publisher has already allocated € 200 thousand for humanitarian aid to citizens of Ukraine. Ubisoft announced this on March 1 on its official website.

Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands will no longer serve users from Russia against the background of the situation in Ukraine. The company specializing in blockchain games and NFT has stated that it does not want to be isolated from the global financial system.In an interview with Bloomberg, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu said that the company decided to introduce restrictions after communicating with lawyers.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced the exemption of all IT companies in Russia from income tax. He also promises not to conduct inspections in their regard, and to give their employees a reprieve from conscription. The document on this has already been signed by the President.

Based in Ukraine, the studio Kevuru Games, specializing in game outsourcing, refused to cooperate with clients from Russia. She also dismissed employees without paying salaries who, according to the company, “supported Russia or expressed a neutral position” in relation to the events taking place.

Wargaming has announced that it will help its Ukrainian employees. The company intends to arrange for employees and their families to move to other countries. She also said that she had allocated 30 million hryvnias ($1 million) for humanitarian support.

The Russian authorities are considering new measures to support the IT sector. It is assumed that now, among other things, domestic technology companies will be able to apply for tax cuts, and their employees will be able to get a preferential mortgage and a deferral from conscription.

We looked at what the international gaming community is saying online about the situation in Ukraine. We share what we found.

Over the weekend, the first full-fledged Steam Deck reviews began to appear on the network. Many reviewers praise the device for its performance in AAA games, an open operating system, and sometimes call it a new word in the portable gaming market. One of the main advantages is the ability to easily emulate titles from old PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.

At the end of last week, Sergey Burkatovsky, vice president and creative director of Wargaming, publicly supported the so-called military operation in Ukraine. Soon after, it became known about his dismissal from the company.

Sid Meier, an eminent game designer and creator of the Civilization series, turned to modern developers. He doesn’t like that many companies forget about the gameplay and put monetization first. According to Meyer, this is a dead-end path that will only harm the industry in the end.Meyer talked about this with the BBC.

Representatives of the Russian gaming industry have published an open letter calling for “stopping [Roskomnadzor] with Ukraine.” It has already been signed by over 900 people.