Pokemon Go will soon be unplayable in Russia

Pokemon Go developer Niantic has become the latest company to answer Ukraine's call to cut off Russia by stopping downloads of its games in the country. But Niantic is also going further than some of its peers, saying that "gameplay will also be suspended [in Russia and Belarus] shortly."

In a late Thursday night announcement, Niantic said that they stood with the global community in hopes of peace and a quick resolution to the violence in Ukraine.

Niantic joins major game publishers—including Take-Two, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, and CD Projekt Red—as well as all major game console makers in preventing new players from obtaining their games and products in Russia during the ongoing invasion. But those other game companies have largely stopped short of suspending access for Russian customers that previously purchased games before the sanctions started.

While it is stopping commerce with Russia, and not blocking access for the same reason other communication tools remain online, the free world should keep all lines of dialogue open.

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The company is cutting access to its games in Russia. Pokemon Go and newer titles like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite were not available in Russia until late last year.

It is an especially direct move for the games, which all rely on a player's location for access. According to Statista data, the Russian market didn't even rank in the top 10 countries by total players in January 2021.

It has become more difficult for a company like Niantic to collect money from Russian players as major payment processors have already cut Russia off.