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.

The governor of one of the central banks in the Eurozone told Reuters about the imminent disconnection of Russia from the SWIFT system.

The developer and publisher of the Scapes puzzle series has transferred all its employees working from Ukraine to paid leave. The company also announced the opening of a round-the-clock line and readiness to help with the organization of the move.

Mobile publisher G5 Entertainment made an official statement after the start of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. The company expressed its readiness to protect Ukrainian employees and provide them with the necessary assistance.In its statement, G5 Entertainment noted that at the moment none of its employees living in Ukraine were injured.

Paradox Interactive is not doing well with the corporate culture. An independent audit showed that the company has a toxic atmosphere, and employees face discrimination and harassment. The Swedish publisher has already acknowledged “obvious problems” and assured that he will take the necessary measures.

A new Rebel Wolves studio has appeared. It was founded by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, game director of The Witcher 3 and one of the development leaders of Cyberpunk 2077. Now the team is working on an RPG in the genre of dark fantasy.Concept art of the future Rebel Wolves game

Supercell has always been known for the ability to “kill” unsuccessful games and develop them by small teams. However, the CEO of the company Ilkka Paananen (Ilkka Paananen) called such a concept erroneous. He explained in detail the reasons for its insolvency and outlined a new course of development for Supercell.

The Indian authorities continue to ban applications that are supported by Chinese companies. They blocked 54 more projects in the country, including the royal battle of Free Fire.