Lord of the Rings Online studio says payments from Russia are blocked

Due to the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine and the sanctions levied at Russia, it’s become difficult to make any purchases in Lord of the Rings Online as of late. In response to a question about its stance on the Ukraine invasion, Standing Stone Games posted a brief reply on Facebook that gave us an indication of what’s going on from the studio level.

“Payment processing from Russia has been stopped for a while at the payment processor level, so we didn’t really need to do anything to stop transactions as it happened regardless,” the studio said. “But no, it is not currently generally possible to make a purchase in our game from Russia at the moment.”

The representatives of SSG went on to say that, “We have people here with relatives, friends, and loved ones in the region, and our heart goes out to everyone over there.”

Readers will recall that SSG and Daybreak are currently owned by Swedish corporation EG7, which also owns Russian publisher Innova Games, though of course players will remember the whole Columbus Nova scandal from years ago, as some of the major players from that fiasco are now involved in EG7’s leadership.

The studio also announced that it’s making a change to an achievement related to LOTRO’s newest raid: “We are extending the time available to earn the Leading the Charge Deed for The Hiddenhoard of Abnankâra for all tiers through May 18th, 2022. We expect Tier 4 to arrive in early April, and Tier 5 to be available closer to our Anniversary.”

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