Putin wants Russia to make PlayStation and Xbox competitors

If you thought the current landscape of video game consoles and handhelds was already crowded, then all of Russia has something to say about it. At least Russian President Vladimir Putin, because he gave a mandate: produce Russian video game consoles to compete with the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. That’s a pretty big challenge.

According to a report in the Russian newspaper KommersantThe Kremlin gave an order to “consider the issue of organizing the production of stationary and portable game consoles and game consoles.” Kommersant

According to sources in the Russian national newspaper, VK Group, a major Russian technology company behind the eponymous social media service VK, will be largely responsible for the project. The consoles will be produced by GS Group, formerly known as General Satellite and the largest Russian developer of set-top boxes.

As part of the order from the Russian government dated March 25, VK and GS groups will be responsible for the production of home and portable consoles for Russian consumers until June 15, 2024. The order has only gotten bigger. This move is not Russia’s first move into the video game industry – the country has tried Last year we “penetrated” gaming communities.

and thinks about it Creating your own game engine the year before. But it represents a notable shift since the majority of the gaming industry has cut ties with the country in the midst of the crisis Invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Russian government is now trying to effectively boost its own gaming industry, likely to offset the financial impact of these sanctions.

As an additional measure of the Russian order, these developers were also given the task of “creating an operating system and a cloud system for providing games and programs to users.” Again, the government and these developers have been directed to implement this by mid-June. From this year. Our own functional cloud services, such as remote play and PS3 game streaming to PS5, are still weakening, so the possibility of making this happen within a few months is impossible.

Per KommersantAnalysts are already saying that “there is no competence to produce your own PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and developing such a system from scratch will take up to ten years.”