With plans for a national game engine (opens in new tab) on life support, Russia has begun considering other means of revitalizing its ailing gaming industry, and at a December 15 meeting of officials and industry representatives at the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, the government began considering a federal project began to be considered. Among the projects under consideration is "the establishment of a Russian Electronic Arts to streamline the release of high-quality Russian-made games. Hey, the FIFA license is available now.

According to documents seen by Kommersant (opens in new tab), Russian authorities want to establish a new set of institutions to stabilize and organize Russian game development. In addition to two agencies aimed at focusing on industry regulation, research, and training, the authorities also want to establish "Rosgame": a center for the "strategic development" of the Russian gaming industry that will focus on "industry revitalization and development" and "game development and publishing."

The bigwigs have three scenarios in mind for Rosgame, ranging from the unlikely to the wildly improbable: the first is the so-called "stabilization scenario," which envisions a $7 billion investment that would restore the gaming industry and place Russia among the "top 20 game developing countries" by 2030 The first scenario is the so-called "stabilization scenario. There is also an "ambitious scenario," which would require an investment of $20 billion, which would mean a "breakthrough in the industry." The Commercant noted, perhaps ironically, that "the nature [of the industry breakthrough] is not disclosed."

But where the rubber really hits the road is the $50 billion "leadership scenario," which would clearly see the Russian gaming scene turn into a "soft power (open in new tab) tool" that could directly confront the gaming industry giants by 2030. Soft power refers to cultural influence, or the power to persuade others to adopt one's values, as opposed to military and economic hard power. [Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernushenko's office for tourism, sports, culture, and communications suggested that he may have noticed how unlikely it sounds, revealing that the authorities have not yet figured out how to finance it and that "off-budget mechanisms" are likely to be proposed

December.

A document prepared by the nonprofit Agency for the Development of Computer Sports and Other Types of Sport (ARKIVS), which attended the December meeting, proposed specific goals for future gaming industry projects. Apart from the establishment of the Russian EA, ARKIVS imagines that by 2030 Russian game development will reach one billion foreign users, produce four Russian game engines, and [take a deep breath] somehow produce two new game consoles. This is despite the fact that Russia is still under severe international sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine and many gaming companies have pulled out of Russia altogether.

You wouldn't think so. If I were a gambler, I would think that many of these plans would be dramatically scaled back or frozen altogether as soon as they left the judgment free zone that is the offices of the Ministry of Digital Development. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that gaming has a large enough place in the minds of Russian ministers not only as an economic sector, but also as a soft power tool. China is also in the process of reassessing its hostility to gaming (opens in new tab) in terms of using it as an instrument of cultural influence, and the ongoing global great power competition may sooner or later begin to affect our hobby. (Open in new tab).