Wargaming: Why the company is not positioned

Through the Russian invasion in Ukraine, World-of-Tank and World-of-Warships developers are becoming wargaming again in a very difficult situation. They own studios both in Russia, as well as in Ukraine and originally started as a Belarusian company. Their player base is mainly dominated by Russians, but also has enormously many fans worldwide. In addition, there are war-magnifying statements by now ex-employees and again large donations to the Ukrainian red cross and restraint on advertising campaigns. The company faces a huge tearprint, because despite the calls from the Russian game business, as many developers have already done from the West, Wargaming has so far with this decision. Will the company survive?

After controversy about aggressive monetization and their action against them under contract Influencern last year, Wargaming is currently facing a tearing sample. The Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov demanded in a tweet that video players with departments in Russia should close their outdoor offices. Explicitly he also called wargaming. While Electronic Arts deletes Russian teams from FIFA 22, Ubisoft expose the sale of their games in Russia and excludes the ESL, teams under the influence of the Russian government, wargaming hesitates to remove his products from the Russian market. The developers are in a zwickmühle, as they have strong connections in the Russian market, but also operate Ukrainian studios.

Wargaming is currently supporting its employees in Kyiv to look after other accommodations, offers past payments and takes over the travel expenses for developers escaping from the war. They also donated $ 1 million to the Ukrainian Red Cross. A Creative Director, who advocated the Russian invasion of a Tweet, was released immediately. In addition, the company in his advertising campaigns no longer shows no-reactive tanks and calls his partners to do the same. Despite everything, Wargaming does not retire from the Russian business. Why?

The enormous number of numerous Russian players is 1. Something completely different could be an determination to attend the American journalists and law enforcement agencies in the last year. The payment service provider GlobalMoney was sanctioned by the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council as they operate by their services tax evasion, money laundering and possibly even the financing of terrorist organizations of an ultranationalist Russian party. Wargaming is one of GlobalMoney's largest customers and wraps his mobile payments for the Games World of Tanks, World of Warplanes and World of Warships over the service. That found Journalists of the OCCRP out, a non-profit organization of international journalists who determine in the field of organized crime and corruption. The money is supposed to be allegedly washed over the payment apparatus in Ukraine and the Czech Republic and then transferred to bank accounts in the United Kingdom and Cyprus. Since 2011, Wargamings is no longer in Belarus, but in the European Taxoase Cyprus. There, the company also has a significant share of a bank. American law enforcement agencies have turned on, as servers of Wargaming in California have also been made and payments should also have been made on American banks. The investigation is still running.

Which side is Wargaming now? Outwards give themselves very restrained when it comes to the war in Ukraine, their developers and donations support money on charity. However, they are also entangled in Russian power constructs, from which they can not easily break out.

Former employees of Wargaming are also not heard. On LinkedIn posted an ex developer a call, Wargaming should use its power as the largest Russian influencer to open his eyes to players in Russia and position themselves for war in Ukraine. There would be a small news article on your website or in-game. But this is not happened yet. Probably also for the reason that family, friends and employees of the company would have to fear repressible in such a case in Russia.

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