The Russian government has revived a draft gaming bill that could block Russian access to Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store, according to reporting from UNITED24 Media.

The revived legislation targets Valve's Steam, CD Projekt's GOG, and Epic Games' storefront — the three platforms through which the bulk of paid PC game distribution to Russian consumers has historically flowed. The outlet's reporting does not enumerate the bill's specific provisions, payment-routing restrictions, or named studios and publishers.

Why a single measure naming three storefronts matters

A block imposed across Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store would have sharply different operational consequences for each platform because of how each is built and what it sells.

Steam sits at the center of Valve's PC business and handles the largest share of paid-PC-game revenue globally. A block would remove not only game purchases from the Russian market, but also access to Steam Workshop, Steam Cloud, achievements, and the Steamworks API stack — services titles use for matchmaking, microtransaction processing, DRM, and anti-cheat.

GOG, owned by CD Projekt, has historically emphasized DRM-free distribution and backward-compatibility preservation through the GOG Galaxy client. A block on GOG would cut Russian consumers off from a catalog skewed toward older and indie titles.

The Epic Games Store is run by Epic Games and operates a curated storefront anchored by Unreal Engine licensing and its free-game program. A block would remove that distribution channel and disrupt promotional pipelines Epic has used to seed engagement in regional markets.

What changes for studios and platform partners?

For studios and publishers with Russian-facing distribution through any of the three storefronts, a block triggers a familiar set of operational questions — but with sharper answers than prior regulatory moves because all three storefronts are named in a single measure.

Studios using Steamworks APIs for online play, leaderboards, or matchmaking would face compliance questions other publishers have navigated in restricted markets: whether to maintain backend services for accounts that can no longer reach the storefront, and how to communicate the change to players.

For middleware partners — authentication services, anti-cheat vendors, and analytics SDKs that follow storefront access — operational footprint shifts to whatever alternative storefronts or regional operators emerge.

What to watch next

The bill's revival puts the question back into Russia's legislative pipeline, where timing, committee assignment, and amendments will determine whether it advances toward enactment. Watch for republication of the bill text, an explanatory note from sponsoring deputies clarifying whether the block targets storefront access, payment processing, or both, and any frontend geo-restrictions rolled out by the platforms themselves — the practical signal will arrive from payment-processor guidance and storefront-side enforcement rather than from the bill's formal passage alone.