Video games in Russia

Russia has the largest video games market in Europe, with an estimated 65.2 million players nationwide as of 2018.[1] Even though piracy has been a great issue in the Russian gaming industry,[2] the games market more than doubled in the past five years to over $2 billion in 2019.[3]

In 2001, Russia became the first country in the world to officially recognize competitive video gaming (eSports) as a sport.[4]

History

The history of mass videogaming in Russia (back then in the Soviet Union) takes its roots in the early 1980s when personal computers of different models (Atari 400/800, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 48/128) were brought to the country from United States, Europe, Japan and China.[5] At the same time, a local company, Electronika, released a series of portable game consoles which were mostly clones of Nintendo products. By the middle of the 80s Soviet programmers and enthusiasts began to try to develop their own games.[6][7] The most famous Russian game designer of that era is Alexey Pajitnov, who created the worldwide megahit Tetris.[8][9]

The Dendy, a Taiwanese hardware clone (Famiclone) of the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System), was released for the Russian market in 1992.[10] By 1994, over one million Dendy units were sold in Russia.[11] The Dendy went on to sell a total of 6 million units in Russia and other post-Soviet states.[10]

In 2010, Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of Russia encouraged local video game companies to make video games that were patriotic as it was felt foreign video game publishers made games that were anti-Russian.[12]

Arcades

The first Soviet arcade game machines did not contain digital graphics, and the games' interface had to be emulated with help of physical objects.[13][14][15]

Russian game developers

Company Location Founded
1C Company Moscow 1991
Eagle Dynamics Moscow (Founded)
Switzerland (Current)
1991
GFI Russia Zelenograd 1996
Nival Saint Petersburg (Founded)
3 offices (RU & Europe)
1996
Gaijin Entertainment Moscow & Belarus (Founded),
Other RU places (Till early 2010's?)
Hungary (HQ)
Offices in Europe (Current)
2002
Ice-Pick Lodge Moscow 2002
Nevosoft Saint Petersburg (Founded)
Moscow (Other offices)
2002
Targem Games Yekaterinburg 2002
Elephant Games Yoshkar-Ola (Founded)
Multiple RU areas
2003
Playrix Vologda 2004
Unigine Corp Tomsk (Founded)
Clemency, Luxembourg (HQ)
Multiple offices (Worldwide)
2005
Allods Team Moscow, Voronezh, Bishkek 2006
ZeptoLab Moscow
Barcelona (HQ)
2008
Pixonic Moscow (Founded)
Limassol (HQ)
Multiple offices (RU & Europe)
2009
Alawar Novosibirsk 2011
Brainy Studio Perm 2013
Hungry Couch Games Moscow 2019
Moon Moose Saint Petersburg 2019
G5 Entertainment AB Russia (Founded)
Stockholm (HQ)
Multiple offices (RU, UA & worldwide)
2001
Deus Craft Novosibirsk 2003
Game Factory Interactive Ltd.
(Founder & as developer)
Moscow (Founded)
Multiple offices (Worldwide)
2003
Sigma Team
(See Simple wiki)
Novosibirsk 2003
Katauri Interactive
(See RU wiki)
Vladivostok (Founded)
Kaliningrad (Current)
2004
KranX Productions
(See RU wiki)
Kaliningrad 2004
Trickster Games Russia 2005
Destiny.Games Moscow 2008
Game Garden Moscow (Founded)
San Francisco (HQ)
2009
Colibri Games Russia (Founded)[16][17][18]
Stavanger (Current)[19]
2010
8floor Ltd Russia
London (HQ)
2011
NeoDinamika Kaliningrad 2011
Four Quarters Russia 2013
Tortuga Team Kaliningrad 2013
Morteshka Perm 2015
SK Team Moscow (Founded)
Multiple RU, UA & BY areas
2015
Ktulhu Solutions Moscow 2016
Owlcat Games
(See RU wiki)
Moscow
Nicosia (HQ)
2016
Unfrozen Studio Saint Petersburg
Limassol (HQ)
2016
Alter Games Moscow 2017
Mundfish Moscow
Rockville, Maryland (Corporate)
2017
Mono Studio Samara (Founded)
Brooklyn (Office)
2018
BitLight Games Russia 2019
Black Caviar Games Krasnodar 2019
Magic Hazard Kiev & Russia 2020
Mr. Pink Russia 2020
uglycoal Russia 2020
Online-only Games
Company Location Founded
Nikita Online Moscow (Founded)
Rostov-on-Don (Another office)
1991
Battlestate Games Saint Petersburg 2012
Primarily Mobile/Casual Games
Company Location Founded
DominiGames (Smolyanskiy O.V) Voronezh 2006
HeroCraft Kaliningrad (Founded)
Nikosia (HQ)
Multiple RU & UA areas
2002
Daily Magic Productions Seattle (HQ, Founded)
Kaliningrad (Regional)
Extra office (UA)
2009

Defunct video game developers in Russia

Company Location Founded Closure
Lesta Studio (Till buyout by Wargaming) Saint Petersburg 1991 2011 (Buyout)
DOCA Studios Zelenograd 1992? 1997?
Akella Moscow 1993 2012
StepGames Inc. Moscow 1994 2012
K-D Lab Game Development
(See RU wiki)
Kaliningrad 1995 2012 (President also setup KranX)
New Media Generation Moscow 1995 2015 (Game distribution ceased in 2010)
Burut Creative Team Voronezh 1999 2013
Elemental Games Vladivostok 1999 2015 (Some staff members moved to Katauri Interactive)
Russobit-M (Founder & as developer) Moscow 1999 2013
Avalon Style Entertainment (Till buyout by 1C Company) Moscow 2000 2011
Quazar Studio Timashevsk 2000 2009
Revolt Games Moscow 2001 2014 (Inactive afterwards)
SkyRiver Studios
(See RU wiki, FR wiki)
Samara 2001 2008 (Studio lead disappeared)
VZ.lab Saint Petersburg 2002 2010
.dat media LLC Russia 2003 2011
СНК-Games (Also 'SNK-Games') Moscow (Founded)
Multiple RU areas
2003 2016
Orion Software Russia 2003 2015
SPLine Inc. N/A 2003 2012
DayTerium Kaliningrad 2004 2015 (Changed to movie distribution)
Dynamic Pixels Moscow 2004 2019 (Team moved to Eerie Guest Studios in 2020)
EleFun Games Novosibirsk 2004 (Est.) 2017 (Inactive afterwards)
IceHill Entertainment Yekaterinburg 2004 2010
Litera Laboratories Voronezh 2004 2017 (Inactive afterwards)
World Forge Voronezh 2004 2009
4Reign Studios Kursk 2005 2009
I-Jet Media (Founder & as developer) Yekaterinburg 2005 2007

Demographics and popularity

One in 5 Russians self report that they play video games, according to the Moscow Times.[20] Video games enjoy mass appeal in Russia.[1][21][22] Males make up 58% and females 42% of gamers.[23] Russians tend to be impulse buyers.[24] According to Newzoo 60% of PC gamers are male and 46% of mobile gamers are female.[25][26]

According to J'son and Partners Consulting, the biggest growth in gaming in Russia was mobile and PC games in 2016.[27]

References

  1. "Russia Games Market 2018".
  2. "Welcome To Russia, Where Most Of Your Friends Are Video Game Pirates". Kotaku. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
  3. "Yandex: Russian game market doubled in five years to $2 billion". January 22, 2020.
  4. "Competitive video gaming now officially a sport in Russia". East-West Digital News. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
  5. Goodfellow, Cat (18 December 2014). "Beyond Tetris: a brief history of patriotic video gaming in Russia". Retrieved 2 January 2017 via The Guardian.
  6. "Какими были первые советские персональные компьютеры". Российская газета.
  7. "Советские компьютерные игры". Форум Альтернативной Истории (ФАИ).
  8. "Автор «Тетриса» о простоте и гениальности своей игры". Look At Me. June 6, 2014.
  9. Goodfellow, Cat (December 18, 2014). "Beyond Tetris: a brief history of patriotic video gaming in Russia" via www.theguardian.com.
  10. "Приставка Dendy: Как Виктор Савюк придумал первый в России поп-гаджет" [Dendy Prefix: How Viktor Savyuk Came Up With The First Pop-gadget In Russia]. The Firm's Secret (in Russian). 9 August 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  11. "Полугодовые итоги по бизнесу Dendy — К "русскому Nintendo" добавилась японская Sega" [Talk of Japanese competitor Sega entering Russian market] (in Russian). Kommersant. July 19, 1994. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  12. "Russia attempts to turn the patriotic tide by funding new video games". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
  13. "Музей советских игровых автоматов открылся на новом месте". The Village. August 11, 2011.
  14. "Russians recall bygone era with Soviet game museum". June 14, 2007 via www.reuters.com.
  15. "Russian video arcade captures dying culture". Salon. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
  16. "Colibri's dev". Indie DB. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  17. "Colibri's dev". Mod DB. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  18. "Colibri's FILE Festival page". Electronic Language International Festival. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  19. "Colibri dev's Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  20. Times, The Moscow (August 19, 2019). "1 in 5 Russians Are Gamers, Poll Says". The Moscow Times.
  21. "Video Games Drive Media Market Growth". Moscow Times. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
  22. Goodfellow, Catherine (2015). "ONLINE GAMING IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: PRACTICES, CONTEXTS AND DISCOURSES" (PDF). www.research.manchester.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  23. "An Insider's Guide to the Russian Game Industry | ironSource". Ironsrc.com. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  24. "Game Insight: Shedding light on Russia's game trends". Russia Beyond the Headlines. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
  25. "Russian Game Industry Survey 2019". russia-promo.com.
  26. "White Paper: Guide to Online Games Promotion in the Russian Market". russia-promo.com.
  27. "Research of the global and Russian gaming market, 2016 - Контент и мобильные приложения | RUSSIAN ANALYTICS". json.tv.
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