Ubisoft and Take-Two are the latest game companies to halt sales in Russia

More major gaming companies are joining the boycott against Russia, with Ubisoft and Take-Two putting business on hold amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine. On Monday, Ubisoft updated a blog post in which it expressed support for Ukraine and its team members based there to note it’s pausing sales in Russia.

Take-Two, meanwhile, has stopped sales of games and ended marketing support in Russia and Belarus. The publisher also told GamesIndustry.biz it’s preventing people in the two countries from installing its games. That includes Grand Theft Auto V, which is believed to be the third most-popular game in Russia behind Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2, based on monthly active users.

Since the invasion began, many notable gaming companies have withdrawn from Russia, including Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, Microsoft, EA and CD Projekt. Sony also removedGran Turismo 7 from its Russian storefront just as the game was released elsewhere, while Nintendo halted Switch eShop payments.

Other major companies have ended or limited services and sales in Russia, including Google, Netflix, TikTok, PayPal, Adobe, internet backbone provider Cogent and Meta. Samsung has stopped shipping products to the country, while Apple has suspended all sales there.

Keyboard and mouse support is coming to Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming service

Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming service recently added Flight Simulator, allowing you to play the game on Xbox One, phones, tablets and web browsers via the cloud. But unlike the PC version of the title, you can’t use a keyboard and mouse to control your plane. However, that’s about to change, according to Flight Simulator head Jorg Neumann.

In a developer Q&A spotted by Windows Central, Neumann said Microsoft is working on adding platform-level support for the feature, suggesting most games on Xbox Cloud Gaming could eventually include the input method. “So the platform team is working on this. I know I can’t give a date because it’s the platform team. I don’t know their dates, but it’s coming,” he said. “I’m hoping it will be done by June or so, but I can’t ever tell.”

Responding to The Verge, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the company was working on the feature but declined to provide a release date. “At launch, Microsoft Flight Simulator supports standard controller inputs for cloud gaming,” they said. “The team is experimenting with touch/gyro and is excited to embrace M&K once it’s available on the platform but we have no specific announcements or timing to share at this time.”

Keyboard and mouse support would be a useful addition to Xbox Cloud Gaming for a couple of reasons. For one, it would allow PC and Mac owners to play games like Halo Infinite without buying a gamepad. Instead, they could use the peripherals they already have on hand. Secondly, it would make it easier for Microsoft to bring PC exclusives like Age of Empires IV to the service.