Today is the 37th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. A tragic event occurred on April 26, 1986, when it was decided to conduct a series of tests during the planned shutdown of one of the reactors of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Things didn’t go according to plan, eventually causing two thermal explosions that destroyed the reactor and released large amounts of radioactive material into the environment.

Using the pretext of the Ukrainian tragedy, the Nelset company prepared the game Chernobyl: Origins and planned its release for April 28. It wouldn’t matter (games based on the Chernobyl disaster have been released before), but Nelset is a Russian company located in Stavropol and paying taxes to the Russian budget, from which the war against Ukraine is then financed. Therefore, it is advisable not to simply ignore the Chernobyl: Origins game, but to try to block it on all platforms where the Russians are trying to distribute it: Nintendo Switch, Steam PC. Every conscientious citizen can join this useful cause and limit the possibility of attracting money from Ukrainians to finance Russian aggression. So, to block the sale of Chernobyl: Origins for Ukrainian users, you need to do the following:

• Go to the game page on Steam
• Click on the “Complain” flag
• Select “Breach of law – Contains material that violates the laws of your country”
• Next, you can introduce an arbitrary text that describes the essence of the violation of Ukrainian legislation. In this case, one should complain about the use and propaganda of Soviet symbols in the game, which is prohibited in Ukraine. As an example, we can cite the Soviet star appearing in game locations in the trailer.

It also makes sense to contact Nintendo, which announced its exit from the Russian market, but is engaged in the distribution of the Russian game in its store for the Nintendo Switch.

Dear @Nintendo , How are you doing? OK? What is it, you have, as it were, the left Russian market, but you will be happy to implement a game on your platform from Russian developers who are not all attempts to “hide”? Seriously?

— Holy Agnostic ? (@HolyAgnostic1) April 26, 2023

If there is a desire to dive into the Chernobyl theme in games, there are many worthy projects of decent (non-Russian) developers.

• STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (PC)
• STALKER: Clear Sky (PC)
• STALKER: Call of Pripyat (PC)
• Chernobylite (PC)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (PC, 15-minute mission in Pripyat)
• Radiation City (Android, iOS, Mac OS, Nintendo Switch)
• Chernobyl VR Project (interactive virtual tour)
• Chernobyl: Chapter One is a DLC for the zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2

But be careful. Many games on the subject of the Chernobyl disaster were created by Russians.

Chernobylite: STALKER and a half