Atomic Heart developer Mundfish is facing backlash over a statement on its stance on the Russo-Ukraine war.
Earlier today on January 16, Mundfish published several tweets from its official Twitter account. Follow-up tweets to the one below state that Mundfish does "not comment on politics or religion," and that the developer is "a global team focused on getting Atomic Heart into the hands of gamers everywhere."
Guys, we have noted the questions surrounding where we, at Mundfish, stand. We want to assure you that Mundfish is a developer and studio with a global team focused on an innovative game and is undeniably a pro-peace organization against violence against people.January 16, 2023
"We do not, and will not, condone contributors or spammers with offensive, hateful, discriminatory, violent, or threatening language or content," the tweets from Mundfish conclude. Now, the tweets from the Atomic Heart developer are facing backlash from Twitter users, such as Remedy Entertainment developer Sergey Mohov just below, criticizing the studio for refusing to name the Russo-Ukraine war in its statement.
Violence against which people, exactly? Can’t even say it. This is the response to folks asking them if they took money from the Russian government and its entities sanctioned for their role in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Calling them “spammers.” pic.twitter.com/myfJUMNbyUJanuary 16, 2023
As Mohov further points out in a follow-up tweet, the protagonist of Atomic Heart is a KGB agent in the USSR of the future, set in an alternate timeline where Russia outright defeated Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Mohov writes that for developer Atomic Heart to play the "non-political" card against a video game backdrop of this nature is nonsensical.
At the heart of the discussion around Mundfish though, is the matter of whether or not the studio has accepted funds from the Russian government in development of Atomic Heart. This is a question that's been on the lips of many Twitter users over the past months, and has partially led to today's statements from Mundfish, but it's one that the developer has never explicitly commented on. While Mundfish's headquarters are in Cyprus, the company is Russian, and is understood to be linked to companies that have received sanctions as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.
Atomic Heart releases next month on February 21 across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Interested in learning more about the game? Then you can read our hands-on Atomic Heart preview.
