Russia will support the long-term development of video games

Financing will be carried out within the framework of a competition for the creation of a national one. Developers whose projects will correspond to a certain topic will be able to count on state support.

On Thursday, February 10, the Internet Development Institute will again hold a competition for the creation of national content. The organizers told the DTF website that now game developers who take part in the Competition will receive financial support for three years, and not for a year as before.

You can get money for playing on one of the four topics “Heroes of our days and reasons for pride”, “Qualitative changes in life in Russia as a sustainable trend”, “Stable development of the country” and “Protection of national interests and public values”.

However, games on the topics announced by the Internet Development Institute are difficult to export to other countries, and the Russian market alone is not enough to even pay for the development, says Gevorg Hakobyan, an expert in the gaming industry.

Gevorg Hakobyan , gaming industry expert

The Russian video game market in 2021 has grown to 158 billion rubles. This is slightly more than 3.5% of the world market. However, most of the money comes from mobile and browser games. In addition to being playable anywhere and anytime, they tend to be simple and geared towards the widest possible audience.

What games are being released in Russia now and should we expect domestic “triple-a-projects” (“AAAÄ-PROJECTS”)? Opinion of the editor-in-chief of the DTF website Vadim Elistratov:

Vadim Yelistratov Chief Editor of the DTF website

Popular worldwide mobile video games created by companies from Russia, nemamam. You can think of Cut the Rope, Homescapes or The Treasures of Montezuma.

In 2021, thanks to mobile games, the global market has grown to $180 billion. At the same time, mobile games accounted for slightly more than half – 93 billion. The markets for console and PC games declined slightly.