It appears as though the massively popular block building game Minecraft has been removed from the Google Play and Apple App Store in Russia, as several news outlets in the country have reported that the game is no longer available.
This comes on the heels of last weeks announcement by Microsoft, which owns Minecraft developer Mojang Studios, that is would cease all new sales of its products in Russia in response to the country’s military invasion of Ukraine. Apple Inc. also made a similar move last week. While Microsoft has yet to make an official announcement regarding the game’s removal, digital sales of Minecraft would fall under the “all new sales of Microsoft products” as mentioned in the official statement, and the game’s absence from app stores in Russia really comes as no surprise.
It is the latest example of the tech community taking a stance in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which escalated back on February 24 into open aggression on the part of Russia in the form of missile strikes on Kyiv and an assault against the Ukrainian Border Guard. What cumulative effect such actions on the part of Big Tech companies will ultimately have remains to be seen.
