Right before it was set to go live and available for purchase, Sony decided to quietly pull its eagerly-anticipated racing sim Gran Turismo 7 from the Russian PlayStation Store. There have been calls from Ukraine for companies such as Sony and Microsoft to pull support from the Russian market during the awful war between the neighboring nations. It is likely that Sony pulled the latest Gran Turismo from Russian storefronts in an effort to support the invaded Ukraine.
The game was pulled from the Russian PlayStation Store without warning. As per Eurogamer’s initial report, “the decision not to sell the game in Russia was made by PlayStation last night.” This truly was a last-minute call by the Japanese gaming giant.
The Russian PlayStation Store page for Gran Turismo 7 now reads “release date pending confirmation.” There is currently no word from Sony on when (or if) Gran Turismo 7 will be made available in Russia. Sony has yet to comment on its removal of Gran Turismo 7 from sale in Russia in general.
The gaming industry is getting together to enact change in Russia to help bring peace to Ukraine. Sony’s actions are following CD Projekt Red suspending sales of its games and GOG in Russia and Belarus in an act of support toward Ukraine, a John Romero-developed Doom 2 level has been made in support of the invaded nation, and The Pokémon Company, as well, which has made a sizeable donation to GlobalGiving to help.
