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Games Entertainment Technology

Russia Is Making Its Own Gaming Consoles (gamerant.com) 161

Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia's government to explore the development of a series of homegrown consoles to compete with PlayStation and Xbox. Game Rant reports: Russia has taken issue with Western games and developers in recent years, leading the country to threaten the banning of certain titles like Apex Legends and The Last of Us Part 2. This is due to what the Russian government perceives as pro-LGBTQ messaging, which it openly opposes. In February, Russia's Organization for Developing the Video Game Industry (RVI) laid out a long-term plan that ended with the creation of a fully capable gaming console in 2026-2027. It seems that the Russian government may be attempting to follow through with this plan.

Following a meeting on the economic development of Kaliningrad, Putin requested government officials to research the requirements for domestic production of stationary and portable gaming consoles. The Russian president also ordered the planning of an appropriate operating system and cloud system for the consoles. The deadline for these plans is set for June 15, 2024, and Russia's prime minister was designated as the official overseeing these tasks. A Kremlin spokesperson confirmed that the orders intend to develop Russia's homegrown gaming industry.

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Russia Is Making Its Own Gaming Consoles

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  • 16bits, perchance?
  • by Alain Williams ( 2972 ) <addw@phcomp.co.uk> on Saturday March 30, 2024 @05:27AM (#64355706) Homepage

    World of Special Operation-craft

  • by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Saturday March 30, 2024 @05:30AM (#64355714)
    You not own Tetris. Tetris now owns YOU!
  • by NoMoreACs ( 6161580 ) on Saturday March 30, 2024 @05:30AM (#64355716)

    Considering Russia can't get a 50% yield on chips using an ancient 28 nm process, obviously they won't be using any Russian-made hardware in it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by ffkom ( 3519199 )
      Russia can make "its own gaming consoles" from chips manufactured by China just as much as the US makes "its own gaming consoles" from chips manufactured in China or Taiwan. Whom the video games promote in terms of propaganda depends on the makers of the games, not on the chip manufacturers.
      • Yeah, there's always SMIC. Plus they have Elbrus in Russia, so hey why not?

      • by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Saturday March 30, 2024 @07:43AM (#64355912) Journal

        Russia can make "its own gaming consoles" from chips manufactured by China just as much as the US makes "its own gaming consoles" from chips manufactured in China or Taiwan.

        Lol wut. Taiwan? Taiwan is very much aligned with the West's ideas that it's not OK for a larger neighboring country to invade you just because they want your land for their own and don't believe you have a right to exist as a separate entity, and insist that you have always belonged them even if you don't realize that.

        Can't imagine why Taiwan is so invested in that particular status quo...

        • by cusco ( 717999 )

          Taiwan LIKES the status quo, and so does China. Taiwanese exports to China are 28% of its trade, with another 14% going to Hong Kong, and the US coming in just under Hong Kong's number. They'll make a lot of noise for free USD, but in the end the oligarchs which actually run the country have no intention of rocking the boat.

          • Taiwan LIKES the status quo,

            Yeah no shit.

            and so does China.

            No it does not. The PRC believes that Taiwan is it's land to conquer an rule. China is happy with the old world order of empires conquering their neighbors for land since they have a few placed they want to conquer and are one of the big boys.

            • From the perspective of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan is a Chinese province. And Beijing is the capital if China.

              From the perspective of the Republic of China, Taiwan is a Chinese province, and Taipeh is the capital of China.

              China (either one) is not in the business of conquest. China hasn't been an empire for a while now, and even when they were, they didn't have colonies or conquer their neighbours. They were conquered by their neighbours a few times, and every time the conquerors became Chine

              • by cusco ( 717999 )

                even when they were, they didn't have colonies or conquer their neighbours.

                I'd disagree with that last bit, at different times China has encompassed Myanmar, a good chunk of Southeast Asia, most of the Korean peninsula, and well into the middle of Central Asia. You're right otherwise, they learned their lesson centuries ago, trade is much more stable and less expensive to maintain than being an occupier. They did have trading colonies in the Indian Ocean, as far away as Ethiopia and possibly Zimbabwe, but

              • From the perspective of the PRC, Taiwan, an island that the PRC had never in it's entire history had dominion over is theirs to seize and rule.

                The PRC has never ruled Taiwan and has made threats.

                When you meet in the middle between and absurd position and a sensible one, you adopt an absurd position

                • No, from their perspective they don't need to seize it, they already have it.

                  Why did Chiang Kai-Shek go to Taiwan?

                  Beijing did make noises that they are not pleased about the recent election results in Taiwan; it would have been surprising if they hadn't.

                  • No, from their perspective they don't need to seize it, they already have it.

                    Much like Putin and Ukraine. Which is why they are not against overturning the current order of countries not generally annexing each other, because they wish to be able to seize it by force. And the PRC know full well that it's laws have never been part of PRC and so force would very much be needed.

                    Their perspective is that they have it only in as much as it's their right to take it with military force if they wish. No one high up

                    • Do you even know what you think you are talking about?

                      Do you know anything about history or international law?

                    • Tell me at which point the PRC had ever had dominion over Taiwan.

                      That's right, you can't.

                      Mainland China and Taiwan were under the Republic of China. An internal faction, the newly founded PRC started a revolution and attacked mostly defeating the ROC, and seizing mainland chains m China. They did not succeed in defeating the ROC entirely, and so the older Republic remains on the last piece of land it has, Taiwan.

                      If you know of a history where the PRC had Taiwan so let me know.

                      Currently they are operating on

    • 50% yield is still more than nothing.

      • 50% yield is still more than nothing.

        What yield do you think Intel gets on, say, a 28 nm (just guessing) 8751 Wafer?

        I'd be willing to wager TSMC is getting far North of 50% on 5 nm M3 Wafers.

        • I have no idea. 60%? 70%?

          The point is that 50% yield is not nothing. They are churning out chips. There is room for improvement in the process, but usable chips are being produced.

          • I have no idea. 60%? 70%?

            The point is that 50% yield is not nothing. They are churning out chips. There is room for improvement in the process, but usable chips are being produced.

            I guess if you're desperate. . .

  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Saturday March 30, 2024 @05:34AM (#64355722)

    We just learned [slashdot.org] that they even admit that half of their chip production is duds. And if they admit that, it usually means that most of the rest is trash, too. And they're trying to build high tech weapons for their ridiculous war. What for is a mystery to me since they only use it for terror attacks instead of supporting their front line soldiers with it, but hey, who am I to question the military genius in the Kremlin?

    I have a hunch that these consoles will be as available as cars were in Soviet times. In other words, yeah, we'll see them being produced and presented, but curiously nobody will have one and wait times and scalping will reach levels that PS5 scalpers dreamed of.

    • by sosume ( 680416 )

      I expect that the console will be a cheap clone of the Switch running a fork of Red Star OS with an Android compatibility layer and an exclusive marketplace for government-approved apps. But which games will they have? Russian game studios probably need some government "stimulus" to pivot to developing for their home market.

      When I asked GPT for some Russian game studios, it replied with this list of major Russian game developers whose games show exactly the kind of dystopian world the Russian government wan

      • Russian game makers are obsessed with dystopias, I guess it is their fascination with the exotic and foreign.

        A Dalvik VM for desktop Linux? Yes, please! I have been looking for ways of running Android apps on the desktop other than QEmu.

    • As ffkom posted above, there's nothing stopping them from using SMIC, except maybe China itself.

    • We just learned [slashdot.org] that they even admit that half of their chip production is duds. And if they admit that, it usually means that most of the rest is trash, too. And they're trying to build high tech weapons for their ridiculous war. What for is a mystery to me since they only use it for terror attacks instead of supporting their front line soldiers with it, but hey, who am I to question the military genius in the Kremlin?

      I have a hunch that these consoles will be as available as cars were in Soviet times. In other words, yeah, we'll see them being produced and presented, but curiously nobody will have one and wait times and scalping will reach levels that PS5 scalpers dreamed of.

      Yeah their hardward sucks, but the real problem is software:

      The Russian president also ordered the planning of an appropriate operating system and cloud system for the consoles.

      I see two possibilities:
      a) It's a homegrown Linux distro [wikipedia.org] with a Steam install and hope the sanctions are gone by the time it's ready to ship because it sounds like it's hard (not impossible) to buy games now.
      b) He actually has them build their own cloud and software stack and they end up with an eco-system consisting of a handful of

      • by wwphx ( 225607 )
        You know, there's a lot of Google gaming consoles sitting around somewhere....
      • You think it's going to be a Steam Box clone using something other than Arch?

        I'd rather expect they'd use a proper package manager instead of Steam. The Steam client isn't even available for arm64. Plus, it says they want to use their own clout^Hd.

    • we'll see them being produced and presented

      That's assuming the "Russian console" will even be manufactured in Russia. My feeling is they'll order a few thousand no-name consoles from China, put a "ZBox" or similar label on them and show them on TV as proof that Russian industry thrives and can equal or even better western technology.

  • by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Saturday March 30, 2024 @05:34AM (#64355724)

    One of the main problems of bureaucracy disconnected from reality but feeling desperate need to please the strongman above them is that they don't care about the problem. They only care how they think strongman above them sees the problem.

    This results in hilarious misses like these. In reality, all Russia actually needs to do to avoid alphabet problems is the institute legal framework toward it that many countries already have. All the rainbow virtue signalling in games is replaced with normal things in many locales already. I.e. game makers don't even need to make any significant changes. They just give you a version that is meant for places like Middle East.

    • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Saturday March 30, 2024 @05:52AM (#64355754)

      This is not about LGBT issues. This is about controlling a medium.

      Russia has a pretty tight grip on what information their people can access. Computer games are among the few media that can still enter the country and tell of a world outside of Russia. Please also understand that internet connections are not as omnipresent there as they're here. Yes, in Moscow and Petersburg, but as soon as you move outside those large centers of population, access to what could be considered an "outside world" is spotty at best. Computer games are some of the few media that are not under control by the Russian government that can reach people in those areas.

      • Case in point: Minecraft Library [ign.com].
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        No, this is about alphabet propaganda. Russia has very little grip on what information populace can access, because everyone has a smartphone and everyone uses Telegram. And Telegram has proper discovery mechanisms for things that might interest you in your language.

        That's why there's a metric shit ton of Ukrainian milbloggers who blog in their native Russian and have massive Russian audiences. Trolling wars between Russian and Ukrainian milbloggers are utterly hilarious.

        Russia is religious however, and the

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 )

          They are explicit about the fact that their long term goal is to propagandize general populace to their ideological side. That's why they're starting to get pushback even in the West from people who would like to not have political extremist propaganda in their entertainment.

          Truth. Of course they get pushback. Because the lunatic left doesn't know when or where to stop.

          But being an equal opportunity jerk, I'm happy to give kooks the skewer, the far right now has their own bible, courtesy of the Son of Man, the Christ - their cult leader. 60 some dollars, the proceeds to pay off his sexual assault and espionage lawyers. That's a different subject though. Not whataboutism, just that there is plenty of not quite sane stuff to go around.

          Meanwhile, most of us don't actually c

        • There's also another angle: Remember back in the early 2000s? When ISIS was Teh Evilz? It didn't even take a year before the gaming world was flooded with games where your job was to gun down those evil terrists.

          Now, this time it's not "us" that got attacked. So there is a considerable delay because, well, it's not as much of an ad platform as back when "we" were the target. Buuuuuut... on the other hand... there is game devs like Destructive Creations. A Polish game studio responsible for Hatred and, if th

          • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

            Islamic State hasn't really changed. It's highly active globally. They're active globally opposing governments and heretics from Western Sahel to India. From Russia to Nigeria. Etc.

            As for Russian/anti Russian views, Russians have a very thick skin for that stuff, because they are the main bad guys in Western media. From movies to games to books. Poland for all it's amazing studios putting out bangers in last decade doesn't have the sheer weight of Hollywood and co.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by dskoll ( 99328 )

          Uh WTF? "Alphabet people" are not propagandizing. It seems to me its the religions who do the propagandizing, grooming, and brainwashing. You don't see kids getting sent to gay school, but you sure do see a ton of them being sent to religious indoctrination camps AKA Sunday School.

        • And modern alphabet messaging in mass media is indeed propaganda. ... That's why they're starting to get pushback even in the West from people who would like to not have political extremist propaganda in their entertainment.

          You really need to watch the DS9 episode "Far Beyond the Stars". Might give you a little insight to why LGBTQ+ folks who work in creative industries want to see themselves reflected in their work.

          "You can't make the captain black" is just today's "You can't make the captain gay"

          • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

            You need to update the program you bigot. Gays are evil anti trans oppressors now. Captain is a castrato, and advocating for killing 27 year old autists now.

            (I wish this was just entertainment and not real life).

        • No, this is about alphabet propaganda.

          Your *-ism is showing.

      • You do know that because YouTube are not allowed to do business in Russia anymore, everyone in Russia has YouTube Premium for free, right?

        Can you still get Russia Today?

        Who is being isolated from the outside world here?

        • Youtube is not banned yet only because their russian equivalent sucks donkey balls. As soon as they think it is good enough, youtube will immediately be banned. They consided instagram a terrorist organisation, for fuck's sake!

        • by dskoll ( 99328 )

          Yes, I can still get RT by simply visiting its website. And so can everyone else in the West.

        • Sure I get RT. Though I have to admit, I'm not really sure if it's the real RT, most of what they produce reads a lot like I'm reading The Onion.

  • Gotta love it (Score:4, Insightful)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday March 30, 2024 @05:50AM (#64355750)

    The government has to be directed to develop a means to produce a gaming console, not the private sector. With what technology is unknown considering they don't have enough chips to use in the missiles they're sending against Ukraine.

    It's almost as if in a desparate attempt to keep the focus off the over 400,000 dead and wounded Russians the drunk muscovite midget is trying to distract the population.

    Hans Kristian Graebener = StoneToss

  • Anyone getting a higher score than Putin gets a life-long, no-expenses paid trip to a gulag.

  • by Fons_de_spons ( 1311177 ) on Saturday March 30, 2024 @07:13AM (#64355894)
    Glorious policeman Commune farm simulator KGB Snitch III LGBTQ appocalypse Oligarch transport manager Deny everything deluxe: Chernobyl edition
  • ... he's rejecting euro/american hegemony and their colonial culture in favor of local traditions?

    I thought that was a good thing to you folks?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      Who are "you folks"?

      Oh yeah you're a fuckwit with an utterly binary view of the world. If people don't subscibe to your brand of crazy, they must by your thinking subscribe in whole to the random mishmash of disconnected philosophy which is the polar opposite of whatever's in your head today.

    • by godrik ( 1287354 )

      Yeah, he should totally do that.
      More competition in the console gaming market would be a good thing!

      Now, is that going to lead to the Russian people being exposed to less western games? I highly doubt it; because they aren't hard to get. And probably you also need to reduce exposure to Japanese games, because they represent diversity, especially in sexual orientation about as much as western games.

  • Seems like the return of crappy copies of "capitalist" products. What's next, no more Bananas?
  • Russia's military is scary not because it's any good, but because it's absolutely massive, the people giving the orders don't seem to care how many soldiers die to achieve a goal, and the rest of the world is worried maybe a few of their ICBMs still work despite most likely having been neglected to the point of uselessness.

    From pretty much the moment the second phase of the invasion of Ukraine started, we saw how laughably BAD the Russian military actually is (excluding the aforementioned availability of me

    • Russia's military has barely enough soldiers to guard their border, the longest in the world. It is not the 20th century anymore.

      The rest of the world is not worried about Russian ICBMs. Not because Russia would have neglected their arsenal (unemployment is high, and nuclear weapons maintenance provides jobs), but because nukes are tactically useless.

      The kleptocracy has also been a myth after Medwedev. You don't hear about Mafiya anymore. You now hear about "oligarchs" who are not actually the governmen

      • Russia's military has enough soldiers to be both inept AND gaining ground in Ukraine. And if Ukraine can't ramp up their internal arms industry - and I don't believe they can - a lack of Western support will result in them being overrun by Russian forces. Again, Russia has a numerical advantage but not a quality advantage. If they had both, Ukraine would already be part of Russia.

        The kleptocracy is not a myth. Putin is the king of the kleptocrats, which is why he is so ridiculously wealthy. And 'oligar

        • The Ukraine has four million soldiers, and they have the home advantage. Russia could only spare a few hundred thousand to send to the Ukraine. That's the numbers.

          McKinsey had convinced Russia to outsource their weapons manufacturing to the Ukraine in the early 2000s, and they did, so most Russian weaponry is made in Ukraine. Russia has only recently begun to restore its heavy industry. For reasons that should be obvious.

          I don't know what is going on exactly, the truth is always the first casualty of wa

    • True. The army may be inept, and we saw that in the initial invasion of Ukraine, but they made good headway because they had tons and tons of cannon fodder. Recruitment from the prisons was to get more cannon fodder. The reason Prigozhin attempted a coup was because his Wagner group was being used as cannon fodder.

  • Even if the history of Russian 'import substitution' weren't littered with farces where someone gets a gold star for domestically producing tractors...from imported Polish kits with the serial numbers filed off...or the like; "game console" seems like a strikingly hard target, especially relative to its value.

    It's a consumer product, rather than the state or state owned or heavily influenced companies being the customer, so there's a lot less leverage in terms of just making 'domestically produced' patri
    • This is from a country where the terrorist acts are planned by the state.
      How do you think Putin got in power in the first place? That building didn't blow itself up in 1999

  • Why bother with making game consoles in this day and age? Technically they are no different from home computers anyway, which can be as easy to use for gaming, but offer more flexibility.

  • Not content with controlling the media, they even want to control the games their citizens play.

  • I don't think Russia, alone, can succeed. There's simply not enough games in Russia for this to make sense from a $$$ point of view.

    However, if Russia would partner together with China and India (for technology and marketshare) and a few South American countries (marketshare), they definitely would have high chances of succeeding.
  • So that's where all these Atari knockoffs are coming from.
  • Comrade, you shall not waste your life playing games on your console, instead you should go to war and die for the motherland or slave in a factory making weapons for the war!

Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them. - Oscar Wilde

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