While Microsoft and Sony are probably busy planning the next generation of consoles, another competitor appears unexpectedly. In Russia, on official instructions from the government, its own alternative to Xbox and PlayStation is to be developed.
As part of a meeting on the socio-economic future of the Kaliningrad region, the government issued an order to “consider the issue of organizing the production of stationary and portable game consoles and game consoles,” according to a report in the Russian newspaper Kommersant.
This didn’t come as a complete surprise, as the Russian organization for the development of the video game industry announced in February that it wanted to produce its own console in the long term, but such an active and quick implementation by the Kremlin was not to be expected. Apart from the development of a console, a separate operating system or cloud platform will also be created through which local games can then be distributed.
After the start of sanctions against Russia due to the war of aggression in Ukraine, both Sony and Microsoft announced that they would no longer sell their products there. This also applies to Nintendo, Take-Two, Ubisoft, EA, CD Projekt and Epic Games. There would definitely be a need for your own distribution option and games.
Another reason for the instruction is probably Russia’s difficult attitude towards the positive representation of LGBTQ issues. In recent years there have been repeated problems with such content in games from Western developers. Titles like Apex Legends and The Last of US Part 2 are even threatened with a ban. Even Twitch has been targeted by the Kremlin and was fined by a Russian court in 2023 for refusing to delete content related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Those responsible now have until June 15th to determine the feasibility of such a console. If the assessment is positive, Microsoft and Sony are likely to warm up in the fight for customers, at least on Russian territory.
