Sony pulls Call of Duty: Modern Warfare from Russian PlayStation Store
Sony has pulled the upcoming game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare from the Russian version of the PlayStation Store. Physical copies will probably still appear. The game will be sold in digital form in Russia for PC and Xbox One.
Activision confirmed in a statement to Eurogamer that Sony has made this decision. The Russian Call of Duty account on Twitter be to Sony already and reports that digital versions for PC via Battle.net and for Xbox One will be released from October 25th. It is specifically emphasized that this is a fictional game.
That last comment is not entirely coincidental. In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the Russians are not portrayed too positively. The story is set against the background of a terrorist organization that acquires chemical weapons. In part of the bitter, hard single-player story, players take on the role of a young girl named Farah. She is in a city in the Middle East that is being bombed by Russia. She, her brother and her father try to get away, but are stopped by a Russian soldier, among others. Farah eventually becomes an important member of the resistance as she fights against Russian rule. The Russians make no distinction in the game between these freedom fighters and the terrorists.
Sony has not yet provided a further explanation for the decision to no longer offer the shooter in Russia via the PlayStation Store. It is a remarkable decision to that extent, as this step is not being taken for the digital versions for Xbox One and PC. In addition, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will be one of the biggest titles of this year, making it not an unimportant game for the PlayStation 4. The original Modern Warfare also featured a Russian villain, in the form of a former arms dealer who became an ultra-nationalist party leader. And in Modern Warfare 2 is an infamous mission called ‘No Russian’, in which Russian terrorists cause death and destruction on a Russian airport; that led to the console versions of the game being pulled from Russian stores; after which there was a version without this mission.