EA has announced that it will remove all Russian teams and the Russian national team from its games. This affects the current FIFA 22, as well as other games. This is intended to show solidarity with Ukraine.
What exactly did EA announce? In an official statement, it says that EA, in consultation with FIFA and UEFA, has decided to remove the Russian national team and all Russian clubs from FIFA 22, FIFA Mobile, and FIFA Online.
They also reserve the right to make further changes to other areas of the games in the future.
The developers stated that they want to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine and the voices in football calling for peace and an end to the invasion.
It is currently unknown whether and how the changes will affect FIFA Ultimate Team. Typically, there are issues here because players have invested real money in certain cards.
EA will also remove the Russian national team from their hockey games, NHL. Even the team from Belarus will be removed (via Twitter).
Current events in Ukraine concern gamers and developers alike
How are studios and gamers reacting to the invasion? EA is not the first company to respond to the current events in Ukraine.
The Belarusian game developer Wargaming experienced an internal conflict. The Creative Director spoke positively about the activities of the Russian soldiers. He was subsequently fired: Studio behind World of Tanks fires Creative Director after he supported the Ukraine war. The company also donated one million dollars to the Ukrainian Red Cross.
The Embracer Group, the company behind the developers of Neverwinter and Star Trek Online, also donated one million US dollars to organizations like the Red Cross and ACT Alliance to support Ukraine (via mmorpg.org.pl).
– Ukraine live blog (via Zeit)
– Focus: War against Ukraine (via ard)
– Solidarity with Ukraine (via auswärtiges-amt)
How are gamers and streamers reacting? The well-known YouTuber HandOfBlood, for example, promised to refrain from “typically silly intensity and provocative harshness,” but also wants to offer a way to escape reality with his content.
Other streamers organized donation campaigns or refrained from streams that involved war games. Unge and some other streamers did not go online on the day of the invasion because they first needed to process it.
Players in ESO and FFXIV, on the other hand, decided to protest for peace in Ukraine with various actions:
ESO: Hundreds of players in the MMORPG protest in a PvP area for peace in the real world
