Call of Duty: Modern Warfare not sold on PS Store in Russia

Whilst Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will be available in Russia on most digital platforms, Sony has decided that the game won’t appear on the Russian PlayStation Store.

A Tweet from the Russian Call of Duty Twitter account first announced the news, but it was Eurogamer who eventually confirmed it with Sony. An official statement was issued to the website that explained Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a work of fiction that has been created in order to entertain players. The statement went on to describe that despite this, Sony Interactive Entertainment has decided that the game will not be sold on the Russian PlayStation Store.
 

В основе Modern Warfare – полностью вымышленная история, тщательно созданная, чтобы доставить удовольствие всем игрокам. SIE решили не продавать игру в российском PS Store. Мы с нетерпением ждем выхода игры в цифровом варианте для ПК и Xbox 25 октября.

— Call of Duty Russia (@CallofDutyRU) October 22, 2019

The statement ended with a comment telling Eurogamer that Activision looks forward to launching the game digitally in Russia through Battle.net on PC, and for Xbox One through the Xbox Store.

Sony provided no further details to GamesIndustry.biz when they reached out for a comment. Sony’s statement is far more closed than Activision’s, telling the website that they have decided not to sell Modern Warfare on the PlayStation Store in Russia, and that they are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Activision’s statement is quite telling, in that they mention that the game is fictional. The story of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare focuses on a rebel force battling Russian occupation in a fictional Middle Eastern country named Urzikstan. At preview events there have been several encounters with Russian troops in the game’s missions, with one in particular that sees one of these soldiers murder a young girl’s father. In the following scene the young girl murders the soldier.

It’s likely that Sony fears repercussions over the events in Modern Warfare, no matter how fictional they are. Modern Warfare 2 the infamous mission that put players in the shoes of a Russian terrorist mowing down innocent civilians in an airport, ‘No Russian’, was actually removed from the Russian version of the game. Reports at the time said that the game wouldn’t even see a Russian release due to the mission, but in reality the game did see a release in the country, though only for PC.