Like games like STALKER 2, the war in the Ukraine could cause Replaced is affected and has to postpone its development for a time. Although in this case, it is for different reasons than the Ukrainian team of GSC Game World, who is ultimately suffering from a military invasion in their country. Sad Cat Studios, responsible for the game, is a Belarusian independent studio based in Minsk.
Like Russia, Belarus is experiencing major economic and cultural blockades for its collaboration in the armed conflict in Ukraine, such as the withdrawal of all products and services of Bloober Team, CD Projekt RED or Microsoft itself. That is why the Sad Cat Studios team has made the decision to move its offices out of Belarus to avoid more sanctions and a more than likely rejection of public opinion because of their nationality. This process, as is logical, could affect the development of replacedone of the revelation games of the past E3 2021.
“We are a Belarusian studio and we want to make this completely clear: we are against war“, assures the team through a statement through its Twitter account. “We condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the involvement of the Belarusian government in that aggression. There is no excuse for the war and suffering that is taking place right now.”
“Our team has endured the demonstrations against the Belarusian dictatorship in 2020 -one of us has been injured, another detained-. Now one of our own is stuck in the midst of the chaos of war, defending the country from him, and we’re proud to have such brave people on our team.
“That said, we have finally decided to focus on the well-being of our team and relocate.”
It is to be hoped that this process will have repercussions on the development of Replaced, which, on the other hand, does not have a specific departure date beyond 2022. Its launch is expected on Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S and PC consoles.