Released in late May, a military strategy game Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg from the Ukrainian team Starni games was blocked by Roskomnadzor in Russia. About this on the project page in Steam said the head of the studio, Igor Tymoshenko.
In an open letter, he cited the charges that were brought against the project. So, according to the Russian regulator, Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg has “clear signs of the rehabilitation of Nazism”, and also “forms a loyal attitude towards Nazism and war criminals among the participants, belittles the exploits of the Soviet people in the fight against Nazi invaders and is actually aimed at reviewing the results Second World War”.
The developers, in turn, noted that Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg is primarily a work of art that shows the author’s view of alternative events. At the same time, one does not have to play for Adolf Hitler, as the Russian media said, but for the German officer Franz Halder, who was not accused at the Nuremberg trials. In addition, the project was denazified – all prohibited characters were replaced or changed in accordance with the requirements of the law.
The buzz around the game came up after the Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg trailer released on YouTube, which shows the scene where Hitler hosts a parade on Red Square. However, she, as the authors note, does not complete the campaign, but is at 75% of the passing game. Moreover, Hitler is killed several missions later, and Goering eventually becomes an adversary, which is why the player has to storm Berlin to put an end to his criminal rule. In the finals, Hitler and Goering are dead, and in Germany a new, democratic government is being formed.
“The description of the game from the very beginning indicated that it contained elements of an alternative story and that the player would have to look at the development of events in which Germany acted more successfully than it actually was. We do not claim that” the USSR lost the war “or “German troops captured Moscow.” We created a work of art that showed what could have happened if it had happened. And judging by the negative reaction of some people, we managed to show how sad the consequences of the events shown in the game would have happened if they had happened. in fact. This can be regarded as an anti-Nazi statement condemning the actions of the National Socialists. Or, at least, as an ordinary fiction. Similar topics have been repeatedly raised in various works of art, such as “The Man in the High Castle”, a series of games “Red Alert” and many others, ”said Starni Games.
Starni Games believes that Roskomnadzor’s indictment does not contain information about a specific law or its paragraphs that would make it clear which law was violated. The developers see no real reason for banning the game, however, under Russian law, both they and Valve were forced to comply with the decision of Roskomnadzor.
“We are sorry that it came to this, but that’s exactly what happens when important decisions (about playing with more than 100 hours of gameplay) are made after watching a 30-second video on YouTube”
In the end, the studio noted that such actions, taken without a normal trial, violate consumer rights and encourage piracy. According to Starni Games, after blocking Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg on Russian Steam, the number of illegal downloads of a game from Russia has increased dramatically.
Earlier, a spokesman for the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov regretted that Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg is available in our country on the year of the 75th anniversary of the Victory, noting that the game is propaganda of Nazism.
Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg approval rating on Steam is 83%.
Read also: It’s all about discounts: Resident Evil 8 is announced in the near future – insider.
Add to our Telegram channel via the link or search for it manually in the search by name gmradost. There we publish, including that which does not fall into the news feed. Also subscribe to us in Yandex.Zen, Twitter and VK. And do not forget that we have a dark theme and a ribbon instead of tiles.
