Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a mandate for the Federation to produce video game consoles that can compete with PlayStation and Xbox. The nation’s tech industry has until June 15 to execute the mandate.
According to a report from the national newspaper Kommersant, the order was passed down on behalf of the Kremlin to “consider the issue of organizing the production of stationary and portable game consoles and game consoles.”
Sources from Kommersant say that the VK Group, a major tech company in the territory responsible for the social media service VK, will be primarily responsible for the project. Console production will be handed by GS Group, the largest Russian developer of set-top boxes.
As per the order from the Russian government on March 25, both the VK and GS groups will be responsible for the production of home and portable consoles targeted towards Russian consumers by June 15, 2024.
In addition, developers have been tasked with the “creation of an operating system and a cloud system for delivering games and programs to users.” Existing examples found globally include Remote Play and Xbox Game Pass.
This move is unsurprising considering the ban on imports in the nation for globally recognized consoles like the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Back in 2022, Russia also began expressing interest in the creation of its own game engine.
