Earlier this week, a post on the Guru3D forums by Unwinder – full name Alexey Nicolaychuk – stated that MSI seemed to have partially abandoned the development of the Afterburner overclocking tool, but that he would continue to develop it independently, despite not having been paid by the Taiwanese brand for several months, due in no small part to the ongoing sanctions against his home country of Russia.
In light of Alexey’s post, MSI quickly responded, issuing a statement to PC Gamer that it “fully intends” to continue with the development of MSI Afterburner. In another statement addressing its arrangement with the developer, the company issued statement via Twitter, stating that its product marketing and accounting team are “dealing with the problem right now” and that they are still in touch with him. Trying to solve the issue.
Got an update from MSI regarding this:
"Our product marketing & accounting team are dealing with this problem now. Due to the war, our payment couldn't transfer to the author's bank account successfully. We are still keeping in touch with him and figuring out how to solve this" https://t.co/zj0Ph2SDuk
— Hassan Mujtaba (@hms1193) January 9, 2023
As per MSI’s statement to PCGamer on the matter, “payments had been put on hold due to the RU/UA war and the economic regulations that entailed.”
In spite of the ongoing sanctions against Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, MSI is still one of a handful of brands that still have a presence in Russia. Typically, companies would use the international banking system, SWIFT, to easily transfer any payments to individuals and other entities. However, due, to said sanctions, the service has been restricted in the country, with many of its banks cut-off from the system since March last year.
(Source: PCGamer, Tom’s Hardware, Twitter)
