The video game industry is once more being affected by the ongoing Russian war on Ukraine. Belarus and Ukrainian based developer Sad Cat Studios and publishing partner Coatsink have delayed the release of upcoming sci-fi platformer REPLACED into 2023.

In a statement posted to Twitter the developer’s social media team had this to say about the delay:

Ş̸̯̅̇͌̈̚ô̴̡̬̣͚̮͜ŗ̶̳̯̹͖̣̆͑r̴̢̖̲͎̙̬̹̓̆̓̾̂̈́̊̕y̶̡̡̫͔̩̲̩͉̌̈́̊ pic.twitter.com/KgY852bBna

— REPLACED (@REPLACEDGame) May 25, 2022

“The Belarusian based studio working on the game, Sad Cat Studios, has a team of talented developers from Belarus and Ukraine. Unfortunately, the continued war in Ukraine has heavily impacted the development of REPLACED, as most of the team resides in the neighboring regions.

The priority for Sad Cat was for the safety of the team and their families. As a result, part of the team has now relocated and work has only recently restarted on REPLACED.”

They go on to say that the game is currently planned to be released sometime in 2023. The announcement mirrors that of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, where developers GSC Game World announced that they had to pause (now resumed) development due to the war as their team was entirely in the Ukraine. It is likely that the continued invasion and war in Ukraine will further affect the video games industry as Ukraine is something of a hub for Eastern European video game development. For now as this story develops or any other stories should arise, we’ll be here to keep you informed.