The Russian shooter “Atomic Heart” causes uneasiness in Ukraine. According to the data protection declaration, which has since been removed, the makers allowed themselves to forward customer data to the Russian secret service. Reason enough for Ukraine to want to stop the celebrated shooter.
The Soviet shooter “Atomic Heart” has received positive feedback from players in many places – as well as in the trade press. Graphics, idea, setting – many things are liked by gamers. But the Deputy Digital Minister of Ukraine, Alexander Bornyakov, is critical of the game due to the origin of those responsible. Compared to “Dev.ua” he demanded to stop the distribution of the game immediately.
Bornyakov said: “We demand to stop the distribution of this game in other countries due to its toxicity, the potential collection of user data and the possibility of transferring it to third parties in Russia.” The minister also fears that money from the sale of the title could flow into funds for the war against his country.
Money for Gazprom’s “Atomic Heart”, data on the FSB
The deputy digital minister relies on two arguments. “Atomic Heart” is a product of the development studio Mundfish. According to “Eurogamer”, the company GEM Capital is said to be one of the investors. The founder and boss is called Anatoliy Paliy. On the homepage, GEM Capital states that it also financially supports other studios in addition to Mundfish, such as Owlcat Games, Weappy or Deus Craft.
The only official information about the founder is: “Before founding GEM Capital, Anatoliy worked in top management positions in large companies for more than 10 years.” One of these companies was the Russian company Gazprom. Another report also alleges that Paliy has close ties to the sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
In addition, there is a data protection declaration that was found in the run-up to the publication. There it was said that Mundfish “conceds the collection of user data and the possible transfer of this data to Russian state authorities, in particular to the tax office and the FSB”. Mundfish rejected the data protection declaration to “Gamesradar” as outdated and has since deleted the document.
Studio denies government ties
A few days ago, the studio was forced to make a public statement. Quite vaguely, it said on Twitter: “Guys, we’ve taken note of the questions about our position at Mundfish. We want to reassure you that Mundfish is a developer and studio with a global team focused on making an innovative game and undeniably a… Pro-peace organization against violence against people. We do not comment on politics or religion.”
Meanwhile, the criticism of “Atomic Heart” has not left its contributors untouched. Composer Mick Gordon, to whom the game owes its soundtrack, said via Twitter that he wanted to donate the proceeds to the Red Cross. He describes working with Mundfish as “an absolute pleasure” and looks forward to seeing his work in the finished game.
Meanwhile, Alexander Bornyakov has other problems with the game. In his opinion, it romanticizes communist ideology, the Soviet Union and the KGB, which is totally untimely given that the game was released just before the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Apparently he doesn’t think this is a coincidence.
