Gran Turismo 7 Not For Russians; Sony Blocks Product Sales in the Country

Fans of Gran Turismo can now play the latest installment of the series - Gran Turismo 7. Despite the fact that the game collects very good reviews, many people are bothered by the intrusive microtransactions. However, not everywhere players are able to get to know the pros and cons of the latest PlayStation exclusive.

The game is currently unavailable on the Russian PlayStation Store and the decision not to distribute it on the local market was probably made yesterday (via Eurogamer).

"Release date pending confirmation"

The above sentence can be found at GT7's page in the Russian store. What does it mean? Well, so far the public hasn't received any official confirmation from Sony, but it doesn't take long to figure out that it is about sanctions imposed on Russia in connection with the attack on Ukraine.

The blocking of sales followed an appeal by Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, in which he called on gaming giants to shut down their services in the Russian market.

Gaming World vs Russia

Gran Turismo 7 is not the only game that is no longer available to Russians. Yesterday, the decision to withdraw sales from that market was made by Polish studios CD Projekt RED and Bloober Team.

This was met with a quick reaction from Russian and Belarusian users, who started a review bombing action of the games by Polish developers, including The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.

While waiting for Sony's official stance, one might ask whether the Japanese company will follow suit and start withdrawing more games from the Russian market as part of the sanctions - or maybe even shut down all its services.

Cutting off an entire country from the services of a particular console, although it appeared to be an unrealistic scenario not so long ago, seems quite likely at this point.

Finally, the question remains whether, if Sony decides to take such action, Microsoft or Nintendo will follow.