Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to an exodus of foreign industry as Western nations unite to impose sanctions on the Putin regime. The gaming industry is one such industry, with nearly all major companies now pulling out of Russia and closing regional offices. What are ordinary Russians to do when they cannot enjoy the game?

Although exact figures are next to impossible in this area, it is safe to say that Russia in general has a reputation for software piracy, which was well established long before the current war in Ukraine. A new survey by the Russian Game Development Collective and University XYZ School suggests it is getting worse as companies pull out of the market, with 7 out of 10 respondents admitting to having pirated at least one game in 2022 (torrentfreak, Thanks); 51% say they pirated more games last year than they did the year before.

This is one survey first, self-selective in that it was conducted online and most respondents would have had a prior interest in games. The survey was conducted in June 2023 and the sample size was 1,500 respondents in all regions of Russia. The definition of pirated games is broad, but according to Emma Yusova, COO of XYZ School, the majority were downloaded from torrent trackers.

More importantly, this comes after an unprecedented withdrawal of Western companies from Russia and within a very short timeframe, most existing marketplaces are no longer selling in the region. While some, but not all, content libraries allow Russians access to content purchased before 2022, Russian gamers currently have few channels to legally purchase new games. Incidentally, this is not limited to video games; all new media releases, including books, movies, and music, are now difficult to obtain through legitimate channels.

In addition to the 69% of respondents who said they had played at least one pirated game in 2022, 27% said they had pirated three or more games and 20% said they had played 10 or more titles. Of the 31% of Russians who said they did not buy any pirated games, nearly all expressed personal distaste for the practice, and 7% said they did not buy any new games at all in 2022.

Taking these numbers at face value, they are clearly consistent with the classic argument about piracy. That is, if people cannot access content easily and legally, piracy becomes an attractive solution.

Steam itself is a good example of this: the platform still operates in Russia, but Russian bank cards are not accepted, nor can Russian users make purchases. There are ways around this, but of course they are inconvenient and require the purchase of gift cards or vouchers.

"Players are used to buying games on Steam with one click, and now everyone is choosing to save money because to buy a game you have to do the same operation as when downloading a pirated version," said Moscow-based Watt Studio CEO Yegor Tomsky.

The study also included an estimate of how much Western publishers are losing due to piracy, but it is hard to take this seriously in light of the current economic situation in Russia, where ordinary Russians are facing an increasingly desperate situation. Video games are, after all, a luxury item, and not everyone in Russia is currently investing their surplus income.

For its part, the Russian government is still on the fence about replacing Western companies with their red equivalents; attempts to launch a government-funded competitor to the Unreal Engine have been scuttled, and there is talk of a state-run cybersports school opening.

At a recent meeting in the Kremlin called "Russia is a Land of Opportunity," President Vladimir Putin met with representatives of various industries and made it clear that he truly values this industry. Here, President Putin responds to a speech by developer Anna Kozlova, the winner of a recent state-sponsored competition for developers. The transcript of the Kremlin's remarks has been machine translated and lightly edited:

"I agree with you completely: video games, what you are doing, are not playthings," Putin said. 'First of all, this is a huge business, we know that, billions of dollars. But the most important thing, absolutely the most important thing, is not the money. As you rightly pointed out, (gaming) should be at the intersection of art and education. Games should help people grow, help them find themselves, and help educate them, both within the framework of universal human values, within the framework of patriotism, and from a broadly humanitarian perspective."

Putin even had room for blunt self-reflection on Russia's previous efforts, which are grouped under an initiative called "Game of the Future":

"As for the Game of the Future, one of the authors of this idea is here," Putin said.

"I mean, this idea has been floating around for a long time, but it hasn't worked everywhere, you might even say it hasn't worked everywhere yet. But under the [new] leadership, I think we will succeed."

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