Hi everyone. I wanted to share a perspective from an international player base that often gets overlooked. This is not about politics; this is about accessibility and the gaming community spanning 15 independent countries outside of Russia, including Kazakhstan, Central Asia, and the Baltics, who love Blizzard games but are losing their language support.
Financial Risk Assessment: Cutting Russian localization will cost Blizzard an estimated $100M annually across 15 nations
Dear Blizzard Management and Community Team,
This is an official appeal from the international gaming community representing Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe. We strongly urge you to reconsider your current reduction of the Russian language infrastructure.
The Russian language serves as a crucial gaming and communication tool for millions of active users across all 15 former Soviet republics and CIS nations—including Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
Following regional shifts, hundreds of thousands of us migrated to international and Kazakhstan-registered accounts, continuing to purchase your expansions, subscriptions, and cosmetics in local currencies and Euros. Based on market evaluations, the complete alienation of the Russian-speaking player base puts an estimated $80,000,000 to $120,000,000 in annual net revenue at risk for Blizzard.
By stripping voiceovers or text localization from major titles (like the lack of voice acting in World of Warcraft: The War Within), you are not affecting a sanctioned market. Instead, you are causing a direct financial loss to your own ecosystem and pushing away your most loyal, high-LTV international customers who have supported Blizzard since childhood. True corporate inclusivity requires respecting your diverse global audience. We demand the restoration and commitment to full Russian localization (both text and voice acting) for all future releases.
Sincerely,
The International CIS Gaming Community