Developers living in Ukraine have been unable to collect revenue from Steam due to banking issues caused by the Russian invasion.
In a string of emails sent to devs in the region earlier this month, which have now been verified by PCGamer, Valve said it was “unable to send bank payments to Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine” as a result of the “current environment.”
In a follow-up email shared by Ukrainian developer Stas Shostak on social media, Valve said it has been told by its bank to provide “intermediate information” for all wire payments to accounts in Russia and Ukraine, complicating the payment process.
“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,” continued the statement.
“For now your choice is to wait for us to complete this work, or to change your payment instructions to a bank that sits outside of Ukraine, Russia, or Belarus. Rest assured, if there are any outstanding balances on your account they will be paid as soon as they can be sent.”
Valve described the situation as “frustrating” and said it hopes to resolve the matter soon, but couldn’t prove a clear timeframe. Although Shostak seemed relieved to hear the issue was legitimate payment error, other developers were less sympathetic.
“My country was attacked by Russia and because of this you decided to deprive me of a source of income?” wrote Ternox Games on Twitter. “Valve is depriving Ukrainians of their income during this difficult times.”
In an additional statement sent to PCGamer, Shostak said they’d be surprised if the matter was resolved by April, and confirmed that all the Ukrainian developers they know are affected by the issue.
“I’m not sure about April,” they said. “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.”
Game Developer has reached out to Valve in an attempt to clarify how many developers are affected by the issue, and when a solution will be implemented.