Steam has temporarily suspended payments for Ukrainian and Russian developers earlier this month, delaying them from receiving the revenue due at the end of March.
The decision is tied to the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, and comes as a result of Valve’s bank asking for intermediary bank information for wire payments to Ukrainian and Russian accounts.
The initial notification sent to developers earlier in March briefly stated that bank payments to Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia were suspended “due to the current environment,” but the company offered additional clarification after this caused outrage among affected devs.
“This past week, our bank notified us that they will begin requiring that we provide intermediary bank information for all wire payments to accounts in Russia and Ukraine. In addition, they will no longer be allowing payments to Belarus,” it said in a follow-up email to Ukrainian solo developer Ternox Games.
“We are working to understand all the new requirements, create a path to collect this information from you and send it to the bank. This will take us some time to complete, but will not be available for the payments to affected accounts due at the end of March.”
Valve noted that the choices currently available to Ukrainan and Russian developers are limited to waiting for it to complete the process mentioned in the quote above or open accounts with banks outside of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.
“Rest assured, if there are any outstanding balances on your account they will be paid as soon as they can be sent,” the company noted before describing the situation as “very frustrating.”
At best, this would mean that the owed March payments will be sent alongside April’s, however, not all affected developers are certain this will happen.
“I’m not sure about April,” indie dev Stas Shostak told PC Gamer. “Will they really sort it out between the banks, or will Ukraine still be cut out just in case? All my Ukrainian gamedev friends report the same situation. Some (me included) are just waiting for the next month, some decided to open accounts in foreign banks to be completely sure they get the next payment.”
Keep updated on the latest PC Gaming news by following GameWatcher on Twitter, checking out our videos on YouTube, giving us a like on Facebook, and joining us on Discord. We may also include links to affiliate stores, which gives us a small commission if you purchase anything via them. Thank you.
