PlayStation quietly pulls Gran Turismo 7 from sale in Russia

eurogamer.net:

Sony has quietly pulled PlayStation's new blockbuster racing game Gran Turismo 7 from sale in Russia.

GT7 launched today worldwide, though is currently unavailable to purchase via the Russian PlayStation Store. Eurogamer understands the decision not to sell the game in Russia was made by PlayStation last night.

Sony is yet to formally announce the game's removal from sale, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment today. Ahead of GT7's release, PlayStation did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Eurogamer this week on GT7's status in the country.

GT7's Russia store page now displays the text: «Release date pending confirmation.»

The move comes after pressure from Ukraine itself for PlayStation and Xbox to stop supporting Russian markets. GT7 is the first major release from either platform holder since Russia's devastating invasion of Ukraine began.

Sony's film distribution arm previously announced it would pause cinema releases in Russia, including the upcoming Spider-Man spin-off Morbius, due on 24th March.

Yesterday, Cyberpunk and The Witcher developer CD Projekt said it would block all purchases made from Russia and its ally Belarus via its PC games store GOG.com — making it the first store owner to do so.

Eurogamer has asked PlayStation, Nintendo, Valve and Xbox whether it plans to do similar with their storefronts.