Last weekend, many posts appeared on ResetEra and Reddit, the authors of which accused the Mundfish studio – the creators of the soon-to-be released Atomic Heart – of supporting Russia in the war in Ukraine. User arguments included: an analysis of the alleged connotations of the development team members with the Russian political scene. Some even put forward the thesis that the premiere of the game was deliberately set for February 21, 2023 – almost on the anniversary of the outbreak of the war, which falls on February 24.
In response to these allegations, Mundfish studio issued a letter to Twitter a message in which he assures about his pro-peace approach and focusing only on the game.
We’ve noticed questions about our position, Mundfish. We assure you that we are a development studio with an international team focused on an innovative game and undeniably a pro-peace organization that opposes violence against people.
We do not comment on politics or religion. Rest assured: we are a global team focused on bringing Atomic Heart into the hands of players around the world.
We do not and will not tolerate postings or spammers using offensive, hateful, discriminatory, violent or threatening language.
It is worth noting that further allegations appeared under the quoted tweets, which means that many people believe that the content of the statement turned out to be insufficient. In their statement, the creators did not address the actual allegations in any way, i.e. links with Russian institutions.
Slightly more specific statements can be found in the social media of some members of the Mundfish studio – for example, here the Ukrainians were called brothers. However, on its website, the team declares that its headquarters are in Cyprus.
As I mentioned before, Atomic Heart will be released on February 21, 2023. At launch, the title will be available on PC, PS4, PS5, XOne and XSX/S as well as on the PC/Xbox Game Pass service. You can see the game in action here.
