When Russia started a war against their neighbour Ukraine last year, almost every major video game company decided to take actions against the former. This included Nintendo as they halted all product shipments to the country (something we reported about), but also said they would stay in the country for the "forseeable future".
Last week Eurogamer discovered that it was still possible to buy Metroid Prime Remastered in Russia via company called Achivka. While parallel imports are difficult for a company to control, this was peculiarly set up by the boss of Nintendo Russia, Yasha Haddazhi. This got a whole lot of not too charming attention for Nintendo, who has therefore decided to act.
In a statement to Eurogamer, Nintendo now explains that they will "wind down operations" in Russia:
"In early 2022, Nintendo suspended shipping products to Russia, and placed Nintendo eShop under maintenance following the suspension of transactions in Russian rubles by the payment provider. Following this, and as a result of the economic outlook, Nintendo of Europe has decided to wind down operations of its Russian subsidiary.
We will maintain a minimal presence in Russia to complete the wind-down process, and to fulfil legal, contractual and administrative requirements. Employees in Moscow received individual compensation packages, and their contracts ended by mutual agreement and with our appreciation for their efforts."
Nintendo also writes that they have "no involvement in parallel import activities in Russia". We'll keep an eye out on this story to see if it develops further or if Nintendo means business this time.