Minister Mykhailo Fedorov Calls on Valve to Resume Payments to Ukrainian Devs
Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov wrote a letter to Gabe Newell. In it, he calls for the resumption of payments to Ukrainian artists.
Source: Flickr | cweyant
Remember the information about Steam withholding payments to Ukrainian developers? We wrote about it here. In short, the problem was that developers from the country attacked by the Russian Federation were not being paid by Steam for the games they created and were sold on the platform. It seems that the problem has not been resolved, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov decided to take matters into his own hands. He sent letter to Gabe Newell, in which he calls for the resumption of payments to Ukrainian developers.
Letter from Mykhailo Fedorov to Gabe Newell
In its previous statements Steam claimed that the situation was only a technical problem related to the requirements of the bank mediating transfers. Work to resolve the difficult situation was to last no less than the end of March. Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov did not intend to wait any longer and issued a letter directly to the director of Valve, Gabe Newell. The letter reads:
"Steam has explained that its bank required intermediary bank information for all wire transfers to Russia and Ukraine. We would like to note that international sanctions have not been applied to any Ukrainian bank, unlike banks of the Russian Federation. No other digital distribution platform has suspended payments to Ukrainian creators since the onset of the war. Given this, we call on your company to resume making payments to all Ukrainian developers or provide them with a transparent and clear explanation why such payments cannot be made, and expected time to adress this issue. We also ask you to provide them with the name of the institution requiring additional information and the legal basis for its demands."
Waiting for Newell to make a move
The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine called on the director of Valve to resume payments to Ukrainian developers, but interestingly enough, he also called to provide information on the institution that requires additional information needed to pay salaries. Steam so far has not specified how long the problems with payments will last, but it is possible that after the letter written by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, the matter will finally gain momentum.
