In what has been one of the more interesting stories in gaming recently, there is an update on the developers from Bohemia Interactive who are a part of the ArmA III team who have been detained in Greece under charges of espionage. It is the latest twist in a rather peculiar story about the two developers who were apparently sent on vacation to Greece by the company to experience the surroundings and hope it inspires them for the subsequent look and feel of the upcoming tactical military shooter. A wrench was thrown into the works when Greek officials caught them with photographs and videos of a military installation, arrested them and charged them as international spies.
After the initial story broke, representatives from Bohemia have spoken out, declaring their co-workers innocent and simply there working on a video game, not spying at all. In a new post by Bohemia Interactive, they now say that the claims that they have met with the two detained employees, Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar, as well as their lawyers and believe that all of the news reports circulating about espionage charges are baseless and nowhere in the investigation are they charged with espionage. If they aren’t being charged with espionage, I’m not really sure why they are being detained in the first place and what the point of this entire situation is.
Anyway, the detained did release a message to friends, family and anyone listening:
“The conditions are tough, but the people we meet treat us fairly and correctly. It is all a completely absurd misunderstanding that will certainly be quickly explained. We mainly think of you, our families; you have to stay calm and not to worry about us. We hope we will meet soon.”
We’ll keep you apprised of any further updates in this saga.
