Because of the sanctions and boycott: senior officials in Russia want EA, but in the Russian version - voila! The gaming channel

Unreal 5 Trailer (photo: official website, Epic Games)

When it comes to the gaming industry, Russia is a significant player.

Quite a few development and production companies are active within the country, and it has a very significant share of players in the market.

Since the war in Ukraine broke out last February, the economic embargo on Russia has also reached the gaming industry.

In response, many development and distribution companies expressed public support for Ukraine and the sanctions reached the Russian players as well.

Russia, in response, is very interested in stimulating local industry.

In recent months, it has even announced that it will start developing its own private game development engine, one that will compete with popular engines in the market such as Unreal or Unity, which are usually considered the standard for developers starting their careers.

Russia wants the first development steps of the Russian developers to be made in a game engine registered in its name, and it is the one that will enjoy the fruits of the success of those games.

And not the West.

And if that's not enough, new reports coming from the country's news website Kommersant show that Russia doesn't just want to develop games, it wants to distribute them itself.

In the discussion that took place on December 15 and received the title "The Gaming Industry of the Future", senior government officials met and discussed Russia's position in the industry in the future.

One of the proposals that came up in the discussion was to found a local game distributor, or as they called it:

"The plan is to establish a Russian EA, which is considered one of the largest distributors in the world."

Translated from Kommersant (Photo: screenshot, Kommersant)

The Russian government wants to establish two new bodies: one that will be responsible for regulations, research and study.

The second entity was named the project Rosegame which will be responsible for developing and distributing games.

The officials in the administration see three possible scenarios: the first scenario is an investment of seven billion dollars that will pay off very well for the country, and assuming everything goes well, by 2030 it will establish its position as one of the top 20 countries for game development.

The second scenario is a bit more ambitious.

Russia will invest $20 billion and be considered "a pioneer in the industry. The third and last scenario is absurd, and Russia has expressed a desire to also invest $50 billion in order to fight other giants in the industry." According to the report, Russia will achieve this by using soft power and try become a significant actress.

The plan is that by 2030, Russian developers will release up to 25 large, high-budget games, with about 1.6 billion rubles invested in each such project.

which is more than 22 million dollars.

Despite all the predictions, nothing is certain.

The Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Russia, Dmitry Chernyshko told Kommersant that the funding methods and the chosen scenarios have not yet been decided.

Even if Russia chooses to invest more in the gaming industry, the question is how it will do so while the entire industry itself is boycotting it.

On the other hand, FIFA and EA have parted ways, and the license for the game of soccer is open for purchase. We're just saying.

• The gaming channel

• the magazine

Tags

• Gaming

• Russia

• ea