Russia has invaded Ukraine and the entertainment industry is pulling out of Russia where that's possible, donating to Ukrainian humanitarian efforts and denouncing Putin.

We'll take a quick look at what's happened so far.

Film Studios

On February 28 Disney paused all theatrical releases including Pixar's Turning Red which would have premiered on March 10.

A few hours later Warner Bros pulled The Batman.

On March 1 Paramount pulled The Lost City and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 from Russia and Ukraine.

Later that day Universal, like Disney, paused all theatrical releases.

On March 2 Netflix paused all future projects and acquisitions from Russia, including 4 Russian Netflix originals in development. One of which had been shooting.

Game Developers and Platforms

Game Informer have published and are updating an article detailing gaming industry involvement.

11 Bit Studios, Frogwares, Vostok Games, Raw Fury, CD Projekt Red and Crytek were all swift (within 2 days) to denounce the February 24 invasion and pledge various forms of support.

Techland, People Can Fly, Ubisoft, Unity, John Romero, Devolver Digital, The Pokemon Company, Bloober Team, Microsoft, EA, Apple and Remedy Entertainment have since joined them.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl developers GSC Gameworld who are based in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, paused development and said they were now focused on helping their employees and their families to survive.

One we noticed not in Game Informer's article is Assemble Entertainment and there are likely others.

Russia's gaming market is estimated to have been worth $2.3 billion in 2021.

In two tweets on March 2 and 3, Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov called on a range of major gaming companies to take action.

I am sure that you will not only hear, but also do everything possible to protect Ukraine, Europe and finally, the entire democratic world from bloody authoritarian aggression - and I appeal to temporarily block all Russian and Belorussian accounts, temporarily stop the participation of Russian and Belorussian teams and gamers in all international esports events and cancel all international events holding on the territory of Russia and Belorus.

We are sure that such actions will motivate the citizens of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression.

One of those company names stood out - Tencent.

They're a Chinese multinational who have substantial investments in gaming.

How have they responded?

A Tencent spokesperson referred [Business] Insider to a message the company shared on Friday on Weixin, the Chinese-language version of WeChat. In the post, Tencent avoided taking sides in the conflict but appealed to users to be objective when discussing international hot topics. “It’s not easy to maintain peace,” the post reads. “We need to respect and cherish life.”

Paypal has freshly announced suspension of services in Russia.

A Sci-Fi Perspective

Maybe Putin thought that a world just beginning to recover from the COVID pandemic would not have the will to defend a sovereign nation against invasion.

Whether that's true remains to be seen.

But certainly corporations are weighing in hard.

Will it have the desired impact?

Or will Russia either at the national or individual level simply resort to piracy?

Again, remains to be seen.

But what we are seeing now is corporate involvement in war in a way which tends not to be portrayed in sci-fi.

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red have come out very strongly in defense of Ukraine.

CP 2077 portrays a future where corporations rule much of the world.

They maintain their own militaries and also intelligence divisions which deviously manipulate and ruthlessly murder to maximise power and profit.

Corporate dystopias are common in sci-fi and maybe they are where we're headed.

But at least today in relation to this, we see many participating in this war on a strictly corporate level and with good intent.

[ Main Image: National flag of Ukraine via Wikipedia. ]

References

Assemble Entertainment (March 3, 2022). We at Assemble have decided to support the Ukraine and the Ukrainian people during the current situation. Facebook.

Browne, Ryan (March 4, 2022). The video game world starts moving to cut off Russia amid outcry over Ukraine war. CNBC.

D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 1, 2022). Paramount Halts Release Of ‘The Lost City’ & ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 2’ In Russia. Deadline.

D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 28, 2022). ‘The Batman’ Russia Release Paused In Wake Of Ukraine Invasion. Deadline.

D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 1, 2022). Universal Pauses Theatrical Releases In Russia. Deadline.

LeBlanc, Wesley (March 4, 2022). Game Studios Show Support For Ukraine. Game Informer.

Mykhailo Fedorov [@FedorovMykhailo] (March 6, 2022). We received a letter from Dan Schulman, CEO PayPal. Twitter.

Mykhailo Fedorov [@FedorovMykhailo] (March 6, 2022). @Xbox @PlayStation You are definitely aware of what is happening in Ukraine right now. Twitter.

Peters, Jay (March 3, 2022). Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red cuts off sales in Russia and Belarus. The Verge.

Shafer, Ellise (February 28). Disney to Pause Theatrical Releases in Russia, Including ‘Turning Red,’ Due to Ukraine Invasion. Variety.

Soon, Weilun (March 2, 2022). How China’s tech giants, from TikTok to Tencent, are reacting to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Business Insider Australia.

Wikipedia. Mykhailo Fedorov. (viewed March 5, 2022)

Wikipedia. Tencent. (viewed March 5, 2022)