Steam, an international gaming platform, has been selling Russian-made PC “games,” if one can call it one. The game provides a simulation of the actions of Russian FPV war drone operators, including the killing of Ukrainian soldiers and the destruction of military equipment, civilian vehicles, infrastructure, etc.
The war game was developed by a Russian software company, HFM Games, which position itself as “an independent game studio from St. Petersburg, working since 2015 and… making the best games in the world.”
Seemingly innocent PC game, what could be wrong with it? Let’s have a look at reviews from gamers and try to guess their nationality:
(post translation from Russian: An excellent game, I completed all the missions and was drafted to the Russian army to serve as a UAV operator).
(translation from Russian: Tomorrow I’m singing the contract with the Ministry of Defense of Russia to make some BANG-BANG (meaning killing Ukrainians – ed.)).
Taking into account the ongoing extensive mobilization campaign in Russia, it is more than likely that the developers of the game provide personal information of successful gamers to be later drafted to the Russian Army for a qualified recruitment for the war against Ukraine.
(translation from Russian: F#cked up Kyiv and Kharkiv (Ukrainian cities) and then went playing this game. GOYDA! (an aggressive exclamation, brought up by Ivan Okhlobystin, a Russian actor and propagandist that encourages destruction of Ukraine and mass murder of Ukrainians – ed.).
Still, there are voices against drone killing training. Above you can see one of many reviews by Ukrainian gamers that calls on players to boycott the game since it instigates an unprovoked, genocidal, and aggressive war against Ukraine.
As you can see above, empathetic Ukrainian gamers reacted to this murder-instigating game with condemnation, urging Steam users to boycott and delete the game if they downloaded it.
In May 2023, the Finnish Rockodile game studio developed the later-popular drone simulator Death from Above, controlled by the Ukrainian military. In December 2023, 8 months after the Finnish Rockodile game studio developed the popular drone simulator Death from Above, the Russian HFM Games game studio, known for its secretive nature, released a new game that intentionally excludes any Ukrainian context and promotes an aggressive and imperialistic Russian worldview.
The developers promised to donate 30% of the net profit from sales of the Finnish game to two Ukrainian charity organizations: “Return Alive” and “Army of Drones.” The developers promised that once the development pays off, the donation will increase to 70% of the net profit, while the remaining 30% will be allocated for the development of new content for the game.