Call of Duty: Modern Warfare isn’t even out yet but it’s still causing waves across the globe as PlayStation Russia has announced it won’t be selling the game via the PS Store.
In a tweet translated via Twitter, the company issued the following statement: “At the heart of Modern Warfare is a fully fictional story, carefully crafted to please all players. SIE decided not to sell the game in the Russian PS Store. We look forward to the release of the game in digital form for PC and Xbox on October 25th.”
It’s a pretty bizarre statement and it’s not too clear why the game’s been pulled. Call of Duty games that feature Russia as the antagonist have previously been published on the PS Store, so it’s unclear why Modern Warfare won’t be.
As the time of writing, neither Sony nor Activision has commented on the statement.
Modern Warfare received a rating description from the ESRB earlier this summer which detailed a lot of violence in the game.
The ESRB rating described the game as “a first-person shooter in which players assume the roles of special forces soldiers and freedom fighters as they battle terrorists,” confirming that “players can engage in a variety of combat missions, such as saving hostages, escaping/infiltrating war zones, and assaulting enemy compounds.
“Just a few of the more harrowing elements included in the title include dismemberment, the death of children, intense blood spatter, decapitation and waterboarding.”
CoD: Modern Warfare has also faced controversy for the inclusion of white phosphorus as a killstreak.
White phosphorus is a real-world weapon that’s often used to devastating effect. Not only has the weapon been used IRL against enemy combatants, but it’s also been used against civilians.
Exposure to white phosphorus has been known to cause “burns and irritation, liver, kidney, heart, lung, or bone damage, and death.”
It’s not known exactly what’s led to CoD: Modern Warfare not being sold on the Russian PlayStation Store, but hopefully we’ll find out.
Featured Image Credit: Activision