Games publisher Electronic Arts will remove the Russian national team and all other Russian teams from Fifa 22 and associated games, it has announced.
It was doing so to “stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people”, the company tweeted, reports BBC.
It comes as football’s governing bodies Fifa and Uefa said Russia’s national side and clubs would be banned from all competitions.
Ukraine has asked the video games industry to do more.
The country’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called on all game-development companies and esport platforms to block Russian and Belarusian accounts, cancel tournaments and ban players
Electronic Arts tweeted: “EA Sports stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and like so many voices across the world of football, calls for peace and an end to the invasion of Ukraine.
“In line with our partners at Fifa [the International Federation of Association Football] and Uefa [the Union of European Football Associations], EA Sports has initiated processes to remove the Russian national team and all Russian clubs from EA Sports Fifa products including Fifa 22, Fifa Mobile and Fifa online.
“We’re also actively evaluating related changes to other areas of our games.”
It has also removed Russian and Belarusian teams from NHL 22 games.
There has not been any response yet from Microsoft and Sony, which own Xbox and Playstation respectively, to Mr Fedorov’s tweet asking them to leave the Russian market.
Music streaming app Spotify has announced it has closed its Russian office indefinitely
Earlier this week it removed all content from state media RT and Sputnik on its platform in the European Union, the US and other markets except Russia, following similar steps from Meta and Twitter.
