Company of Heroes 2 distributor suspends sales in Russia, SEGA taking complaints 'very seriously'

Russian distributor 1C-SoftKlab has suspended sales of Company of Heroes 2 following complaints over the game's portrayal of Soviet military history, as SEGA says it is taking complaints "very seriously".

[SegaGamer]

Sega takes complaints seriously ????? yeah right.

[3-4-5]

Must be Robotnik !

[aliengmr]

Heard very few facts being disputed. This seems to be a perspective thing. As in the main character has a very western perspective on Russian history.

So I am not sure what could be done about it though.

[VanguardOfCalamity]

Never played Company of Heroes 2 but I wouldn't expect a game to give an accurate history lesson - unless that is what the game promised...

[Ravenor]

Because video games are something you can cite in a history paper. Puh-Lease, shit happened during World War 2, disputing this with a video game complaining of westerners being revisionists just reeks of plugging your ears and screaming La-LA-LA.

No, the things that happened in CoH2 happened. Just not to the level the game portrays, but that's because it's a video game. When you have two factions, usually it's a good idea from a gameplay perspective to have them differ in some major ways.

Russia, you take yourself way to seriously.

[aliengmr]

I thought that at first, but after reading more about what's being said, its a little more complicated than that.

The problem seems to be centered around the main character's perspective on certain events rather than the events themselves.

From what I gather it would be like China making a game about US history but the main character has Chinese perspective of events. Like being ashamed of being part of the Revolution. Something deep that colors the entire narrative.

I think I can see where they are coming from but its hard as I am from the west.

[RAYMEISTER]

The problem is what Russian people are being taught in schools is different than in the west. In russia they're taught they were heroes and liberated the world while in the west it brought a fear of another War on the horizon cause Stalin could not be trusted. It's all about what's being taught to youth in schools. Unfortunately it was never taught that Russian soldiers and Stalin were evil as well and did horrible things; not saying other Allied armies didn't do horrible things, but not to the extent of the Russians/Germans.

[aliengmr]

Thing is, they have all the facts. They don't seem to be ignorant of them. Its all in how they view them.

During WW2 Soviet/Russian(not sure which is preferred) losses were around 25 million. During the Campaign against Germany Soviets lost more soldiers by a large margin even in victory.

Now those of us in the west are unaccustomed to the those level of losses, so we tend to view it as a waste of life. Russians seen it as brave soldiers dying for their country. They also see it as a great sacrifice and that the west has never really respected that. Which is not entirely true, we just see it differently on a much deeper level.

To the west, the main character in the game is ashamed of the things he had to do and felt that they should have taken the "high road". That "price of victory" theme is very common to the west.

This is where the disconnect is (I think). They see the main character insulting or shaming them for what happened. But to Russians those were the realities of a war they made a huge sacrifice for.

So like I said, the issue with the game is a complex one, and relies heavily on perspective.