Although the Saber Interactive studio and the French publisher Focus Entertainment, responsible for SnowRunner, did not leave the markets of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, their off-road driving simulator for some reason disappeared from Steam for these regions in August. Since the creators of the project immediately stated at the time that the game’s disappearance occurred due to circumstances beyond their control, users spent a long time wondering what could have happened.
On December 8, an answer appeared on the studio’s VK page to the question that many had been asking for months: the reason behind everything was FORD. The automaker believes that residents of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus should not drive FORD brand vehicles in a computer game. Notably, for the same reason, Snowrunner also became unavailable in the territory of Ukraine. FORD has not publicly explained its decision, which is bizarre in every sense.
It is important to note that the developers promised to replace the FORD vehicles unavailable to players from the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, and Ukraine with technically equivalent vehicles from fictional manufacturers.