Due To Western Sanctions, Sberbank Is Forced To Close SberGames Service

Sberbank has closed its SberGames service. (photo: twitter @sberbank)

JAKARTA – Russia's main lender, Sberbank, on Wednesday, June 8, announced that it would close its gaming unit, SberGames. This was done because of external restrictions on Russian developers, as a result of Western sanctions forcing them to reduce areas outside of banking.

Sberbank has been developing non-financial businesses such as e-commerce, technology and cloud services in a bid to combat shrinking margins. Although they continue to maintain their presence in several other sectors, their efforts in the sector are considered to be doomed to failure.

"Due to external restrictions for Russian developers on global markets, Sber has taken the decision to close its gaming business," Sberbank said in a statement.

Russian media outlet Kommersant in early May quoted a source as saying that SberGames may have to shut down due to difficulties in distributing its games as Apple and Alphabet's Google has restricted access to their app stores since the West declared sanctions due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"SberGames stopped hiring new employees and launched new projects," said Sberbank. "It is planned that some SberGames employees will move to work in other departments in the bank and the company's ecosystem."

Sberbank, which was blocked by the United States and the United Kingdom and lost access to the SWIFT global payment system. They have also exited most European markets and were forced to make dollar-denominated debt payments in rubles as the West targeted key Russian institutions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine.