News
GSC Game World, the Ukrainian developer behind the cult video game series S.T.A.L.K.E.R., has been added to the Russian government’s list of “undesirable organizations,” as per a press release issued by the Prosecutor General’s Office in Moscow.
The agency claimed GSC supports the Armed Forces of Ukraine — namely by transferring close to $17 million to support the Ukrainian military:
“The [company] is currently focused on providing financial support to the Ukrainian armed forces and on shaping the image of Russia as an ‘aggressor state,’ [sic] including distributing materials that discredit our country.
The organization has repeatedly announced fundraising campaigns both on its own website and through the Lesia UA fund for Ukrainian servicemembers, as well as the Ukrainian charity Come Back Alive, whose activities have already been designated undesirable in Russia.
The organization’s leadership transferred about $17 million in 2022 to a fund supporting Ukrainian servicemembers, money that was used to purchase strike drones, drone components and vehicles.”
The Russian government agency also said a computer game released by the studio in 2024 promotes “Ukrainian narratives” and contains “aggressive, Russophobic content.” The reference appears to be to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
“It’s game over for GSC Game World,” read a post announcing the decision on the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office official channel on Telegram.
GSC has indeed taken part in numerous fundraisers to support Ukraine. These include the “Heart of Gold” initiative, which raised money to equip over 100 Ukrainian schools with generators amid power outages caused by Russian attacks, and a charity game sale that raised over $800,000 for the Come Back Alive foundation in 2022.
As noted by the outlet PC Gamer, “GSC might be the most famous of the myriad Ukrainian studios affected by Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The war forced the studio to relocate from its former home of Kyiv to offices in Prague; one of its developers, Volodymyr Yezhov, was killed in action in December 2022; and the studio has come under repeated propaganda attacks from anti-Ukrainian forces and disgruntled Russian ex-fans.”
GSC Game World is not the first company to receive a similar designation from the Russian government.
In June, a Russian court labeled Wargaming founder Viktor Kisly and Lesta Games head Malik Khatazhev as members of “extremist” organizations. Under the ruling, all shares in the charter capital of St. Petersburg-based Lesta Games were to be confiscated by the state.
Wargaming is best known for its military-themed online games World of Tanks, World of Warships, and World of Warplanes. The company relocated its headquarters from Minsk, Belarus, to Nicosia, Cyprus, in 2011.
Lesta Games operates the Russian versions of Wargaming’s international titles, and the two companies were legally separated in order to shield one another from potential prosecution. After the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Wargaming ended its operations in Russia and transferred the business to Lesta Games, which at the time insisted its projects were apolitical.
In October 2023, Wargaming launched a charity fundraiser to support Ukraine, donating over $1 million raised through the sale of in-game bundles to purchase ambulances, while Lesta Games distanced itself from the campaign.
The charges were based on an analysis of the companies’ publications, including materials on World of Tanks related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, articles about how Wargaming’s team was coping with the war, and the October 2023 charity project featuring Ukrainian content to raise money for medical evacuation vehicles.
Come Back Alive — known in Ukrainian as Povernysʹ zhyvym — is one of Ukraine’s largest and most influential defense charities. Founded in 2014 after Russia’s first invasion of eastern Ukraine, the organization provides non-lethal support to the Ukrainian military in the form of drones, optics, communications gear, vehicles, and medical equipment. The organization also funds training and technical programs that improve battlefield effectiveness. The group is widely recognized for its detailed public reporting and emphasis on transparency. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Come Back Alive has become a major conduit for domestic and international donations. Russia has designated the foundation an “undesirable organization,” making any ties to it illegal under Russian law.