UPDATE: In a letter to a game developer, it’s been revealed that Steam’s bank is requiring them to include information of an intermediary bank for all payments to Russia and Ukraine. Said bank, as speculated by Sergey Mohov from Remedy Entertainment, seems to have imposed sanctions against Ukraine.
Tthey say that all payments to Belarus are suspended, but all payments to Russia AND Ukraine require this intermediary. The only two options developers now have are either waiting or using a foreign bank.
I don’t understand why Russia and Ukraine are lumped together like this.
— Sergey Mohov 🌻 (@krides) March 18, 2022
Steam has recently cut off the developer and publisher payment options to Russia, Belarus, and even Ukraine. The company has not stated a reason behind this development but has sent a message to certain users, citing “the current environment” as the reason behind their cut down on developer and publisher payments.
Here’s the full statement as cataloged by YellowAfterlife on Twitter:
In a new development, Valve completely ceases sending developer/publisher payments to Russia, Belarus… and Ukraine
This doesn’t impact me personally (since I’m not the “owner” of any paid titles), but for anyone relying on Steam as their source of income in these trying times, pic.twitter.com/Ix6YnJM0Xj
— Vadym 🇺🇦 (@YellowAfterlife) March 18, 2022
Now, it might seem strange for Valve to suddenly just pull the rug on Ukraine as well as Russia and Belarus. But, once you consider factors outside of the current political one, it can begin to make sense. Valve’s decision seems to be based on bank information. In other words, this could very well be a problem of the company no longer being able to keep up with the economic shift in all three of those areas.
Earlier this month, as the Russian invasion began, Steam developers from the region were reporting that their sales income was being halted due to their using state-owned banks. However, Russian developers could still earn an income should they switch to other, unsanctioned alternatives.
With this in mind, it’s easier to assume that Steam’s payment lock is more related to the other sanctions that Russia has been facing such as the SWIFT sanction that essentially froze banks within the country. Considering how volatile the current Russian and Ukranian financial systems have become during the war, it’s going to be easier to hold off on payments until the financial situation in all three of the involved countries begins to stabilize.
