author: Miriam Moszczynska
Steam Halts Payments to Developers From Ukraine, Russia and Belarus
Developers from Ukraine draw attention to the unpleasant situation related to payouts on Steam. Both their accounts and those belonging to developers from Russia and Belarus have been blocked.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, and developers in the occupied country are still cut off from the money made from video game sales. Independent publisher Stas Shostak, among others, expressed his outrage at the situation on Twitter.
We apologize for technical diffuculties
The creator, as well as other developers from Ukraine (e.g. Ternox Games), Russia and Belarus, received an email stating that:
"Your bank details have been deactivated for the following reason:
Due to current conditions, we cannot send bank payments to Belarus, Russia and Ukraine."
Fortunately, it did not end with this short message. The outrageous email, due to the use of the term "conditions" in the context of the situation in Ukraine, was expanded by another message from Valve. From its content it appears that the situation was a simple technical problem, associated with the requirements of the bank, which mediates in transfers.
Source: Twitter
Valve also said that it will take no less than the end of March to work on resolving the situation, although as the aforementioned Stas Shostak told PC Gamer - it's uncertain whether the payments will be settled in April.
"I'm not sure about April. Will there actually be a resolution between the banks or will Ukraine be cut off just in case? All my Ukrainian gamedev friends report the same situation. Some (including me) are just waiting for next month, others have decided to open accounts in foreign banks to be absolutely sure they will get their next paycheck."
Steam wanted to be neutral
Reading the content of the email, the veracity of which was confirmed for PC Gamer by a Valve spokesperson, one cannot help but get the impression that the company wanted to remain neutral.
Although the problem was identified as a technical issue, the withholding of payments to these three countries may suggest that Steam didn't want to get involved in the matter any more than necessary.
What does this necessity mean for Valve? Well, it may be a situation in which the platform prevented Russian players from paying for games, more on whichhere. However, only Valve knows the truth.
We also do not know how many developers are affected by Valve's decision and how many took the company's suggestion and moved their bank accounts to another country. Nevertheless, the situation can be safely described as undesirable, especially for developers from Ukraine, who until now have been supported by the industry.