Assets of Lesta Games, which has run the Russian version of World of Tanks and World of Warships since 2022, were seized by Russian officials last week. The seizures of the main corporate entity, the publishing arm, and the Moscow office were reported in a database as being carried out on behalf of a government prosecutor office, as reported by Russian business outlet RBK and spotted by MassivelyOP.
At the time of writing, there’s no given reason by government officials for the seizures, nor has Lesta’s PR reps given a formal statement on the matter. In the meantime, a Telegram message on behalf of the company states that the company is aware of the seizures, and is complying with the government through the investigations.
Lesta Games was formerly owned by Wargaming, but the companies separated towards the beginning of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Lesta kept distribution rights to these games in Russia, including providing Russian translations as well as its own updates for the massive regional playerbase.
Yet, while Wargaming is separated from its Russian entities, RBK heavily implies wrongdoing in Wargaming’s fundraising for Ukraine through World of Tanks, while Lesta implied it wanted to stay separate from politics.
Despite the assertions from RBK, one of many publications likely operating under the scrutiny of the Russian government, nobody publicly seems aware of any proper reason why this would happen.
It’s worth noting that the Russian servers are apparently the most well-populated of all of World of Tanks’ servers, so any shutdown for WoT would have major implications for the region’s gaming community.
(Ta, MOP.)
