When Russia went to war against its neighbor Ukraine last year, almost every major video game company decided to take action against the former. This includes Nintendo, as it has halted all shipments of its products to the country (which we’ve already covered), but also said it will remain in the country for the “foreseeable future”.
Last week, Eurogamer discovered that it was still possible to buy Metroid Prime Remastered in Russia through a company called Ashivka. While parallel imports are difficult for a company to control, it has been cleverly created by the boss of Nintendo Russia himself, Yasha Haddazhi. This powerfully caught the attention of Nintendo, who decided to act.
In a statement to Eurogamer, Nintendo now explains that it will “end its operations” entirely in Russia:
“In early 2022, Nintendo suspended product shipments to Russia and placed the Nintendo eShop into maintenance following the suspension of Russian ruble transactions by the payment provider. Following this, and due to the economic outlook, Nintendo of Europe decided to liquidate the operations of its Russian subsidiary.
We will maintain a minimal presence in Russia to complete the liquidation process and meet legal, contractual and administrative requirements. The Moscow employees received individual compensation and their contracts were terminated by mutual agreement and with our thanks for their efforts.”
Nintendo also writes that they have “no involvement in parallel import activities in Russia”. We’ll keep an eye on this story to see if it evolves or if Nintendo is serious this time and abandons the Russian market for good.