Atomic Heart is one of the most controversial games released in recent history. This week, a member of the Ukrainian government officially asked for the halt of Atomic Heart game sales and asked the general public to refrain from buying or playing the game. Claims indicate that the game’s Cyprus-based developer Mundfish is actually a Russian company with more offices in Russia. Additionally, the game’s narrative relies heavily upon Russian nationalist themes, which critics interpret as propaganda.
For Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Oleksandr Borniakov, the fact that Mundfish has not condemned Putin’s war on Ukraine is proof enough that the developer is beholden to Putin’s government.
To understand the deeper side of this story, it’s vital to grasp how software development teams, including those involved in the video game industry, actually function, as well as the marketing tactics of actual Russian-based businesses.
How Game and Software Development Teams Function
Long before the pandemic, it was common for game and general software development teams to be remote and worldwide. When I worked for a company developing software-as-a-service or SaaS company (then headquartered in Russia, now expressly pro-Ukraine and headquartered in the United States) in 2015, the team was widely distributed around the world. When I assisted marketing efforts for a Facebook-based game pre-pandemic, we also had a distributed team, with a developer based in Ukraine. This is a pretty standard model.
In my marketing experience in both working with and researching companies with offices abroad, the push to legitimize distributed teams, software, and software companies rely on the marketing of a presence in the United States and other non-Russian democratic nations. This is one reason why the U.S. government and companies in the defense industry commonly investigate whether software developers are all located within the U.S. before approving of or establishing a relationship with that business.
In the United States, we see it as a reasonable expectation that businesses report certain data to the federal government — for tax purposes, for example. In Russia, the state-to-business relationship is much deeper, and something a business has little control over. In fact, compliant corporations ensure significant advantages including access to “cheap credit” and debt repayment. It is also highly unlikely that a profitable business could choose to opt out of a state relationship; furthermore, individuals continue to face stiff penalties, including job loss, for public dissent regarding the war on Ukraine.
Not all members involved in the creation, development, and execution of the game face a limitation on what they can say about the game. In Russia, punishment is severe for those who dissent. The game’s composer, however, lives in Australia. He donated his proceeds to help Ukraine.
The Truth About Data Collection: Atomic Heart and Beyond
“So what if Putin’s government has my location? I’m no one important.” I’ve thought this, and you probably have, too. Here’s why data collection is a problem.
While a Russian nationalist agenda is certainly dangerous to a worldwide audience, including those in the U.S. who have been heavily subjected to Russian propaganda during recent elections, the most dangerous aspect of this game’s popularity is data collection. Mundfish has denied claims that they are providing data to the Russian government, but many like myself are still concerned.
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) may request user data at any time as a simple function of how their relationship to Russian businesses works. This hits a nerve with many gamers and general audiences, though, because Russia isn’t the only government that functions this way or has similar relationships with their businesses. TikTok has been in the headlines for similar reasons, and the app is banned on government devices. And as we see with Hogwarts Legacy, lots of people don’t want to be told that they can’t play a game due to a moral issue that impacts and imperils people directly.
The general public likes our social media and video games. End user license agreements (EULAs) and privacy policies, which we agree to before using software including video games, are notoriously long and full of legalese. EULAs, however, are legally binding for you as the user. While it’s not realistic to thoroughly read and comprehend every EULA, you should take a few minutes to Google what you’re signing before you accept. Even the type of gaming computer you own may be sending data to cybersecurity adversaries such as China.
Sending Data to Russia: Why It’s a Problem
Naturally, it depends on what type of data is being sent to someone to determine how problematic this issue could be. However, with the nature of marketing and advertising, a company knowing your name and email address is more than enough for them to serve you an advertisement directly (this is a standard business practice, as is retargeting). This could be a harmless ad, such as one that solicits you to buy another product or service. But, if the data has been turned over to a propaganda department, you could be receiving messages that are created to manipulate you.
This can include inflammatory, false information as we saw during the 2016 election, where foreign governments invest heavily into pushing content that creates controversy, racism, antisemitism, sexism, ableism, and violence, and causes the public to back wild card candidates that otherwise would not receive support.
More specifically, if TikTok or another app developed abroad is tracking a congressperson’s 13-year-old child’s location because they wanted to be on the app, it’s an evident security risk. All a bad actor would have to do is search their collected database of names. With the way data collection, privacy policies, and EULAs work, all the data is collected legally, and many uses of the data — even those we’d consider immoral — are also perfectly legal because of what the user has agreed to.
AI + Data Collection + Automation = Propaganda Machine
With AI like ChatGPT entering the field, the problem is even more concerning. When ChatGPT became available to the public, I gave it a moral test: Write me a marketing campaign glorifying Putin. It complied, with no moral stops. This is not the only moral issue with using AI, which has an imperfect training set and displays a lack of ability to make a judgment. In fact, bad actors can create “content” using ChatGPT, then use commercially accessible programs to automate the posting and promotion of said content.
Propaganda is cheaper than ever — something an oligarchy facing sanctions and an expensive war is well aware of.
It all comes back to propaganda messages: not just in the video game itself, but in the data collection methods. Data collection, which allows for “big data” analysis, is massive as a business function and as a problem that goes well beyond software and apps like Atomic Heart and TikTok.
Before downloading the game and agreeing to the data collection for this and any other game (regardless of where it has been developed), consider the details of the data collection, who has access to the data, and what types of governments or businesses the company may sell the data to. After all — especially in the free-to-play model — you may be the customer and the product.
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We hope you learned a lot about data collection and Atomic Hearts. Please check out Gamer Journalist on Facebook to join the discussion and keep up to date with our content. You may also want to check out Atomic Heart: Russia Controversy Explained.
