Russian game dev tells players to “raise the pirate flag” to get around sanctions

Enlarge / If you can’t buy Loop Hero , the developers encourage you in order to pirate it.

With Russian gamers effectively cut off from purchases on most major gaming platforms due to corporate sanctions against the country, the Russian game developer behind indie darling Loop Hero is encouraging Russian customers to pirate the game.

In a Sunday post on Russian social network VK ( Google translated version ), Loop Hero developer Four Quarters said, “In such difficult times, we can only help everyone to raise the particular pirate flag (together with vpn)” to get the game. The developer then included a link to be able to a copy of Loop Hero on a popular Russian torrent tracker to aid in that process directly.

In a follow-up article the next day ( Google translated version ), Four Quarters insisted that “we didn’t do anything special, there’s nothing wrong with torrents. ” The company also notes that players wanting to offer the developer donations in lieu of buying the game should refrain. “The truth is that everything is fine with us, send this support to your family and friends at this difficult time, ” they wrote.