Overview of video games in Russia
This article needs to be updated . Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (April 2023 )
Russia has one of the largest video games player bases in the world, with an estimated 65.2 million players nationwide as of 2018.[ 1] Despite piracy being widespread in the Russian gaming industry,[ 2]
by 2019, the market more than doubled over the course of five years to the worth of over $2 billion.[ 3]
In 2001, Russia became the first country in the world to officially recognize competitive video gaming as a sport.[ 4]
History
The history of gaming in Russia began in the early 1980s in the Soviet Union , when various personal computers such as the Atari 400/800, Commodore 64 , and ZX Spectrum 48/128 were brought to the country from the United States, Europe, Japan, and China.[ 5] At the same time, a local brand, Electronika , released a series of portable game consoles which were mostly clones of Nintendo products. By the mid 80s, Soviet programmers and enthusiasts began trying to develop their own games.[ 6] [ 7] The most famous Russian game designer of this era is Alexey Pajitnov , who is best known for creating Tetris .[ 8] [ 9]
The Dendy , a Taiwanese hardware clone 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 Russian video game companies to make video games that were deemed "patriotic ," as it was felt that 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
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adding to it .
(August 2020 )
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
Saber Interactive
Saint Petersburg (Founded) , Fort Lauderdale, FL (HQ) Multiple offices (Worldwide)
2001
Ice-Pick Lodge
Moscow
2002
Nevosoft
Saint Petersburg (Founded) Moscow (Other offices)
2002
Targem Games
Yekaterinburg
2002
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
Lazy Bear Games (Ex-GameJam. Renamed in 2015.)
Saint Petersburg (Founded)
2010
Alawar
Novosibirsk
2011
Brainy Studio
Perm
2013
Hungry Couch Games
Moscow
2019
Moon Moose
Saint Petersburg
2019
SoftLab-NSK Ltd. (See RU wiki ) [ a]
Novosibirsk
1988
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
Haggard Games
Rostov-on-Dov
2005
Trickster Games
Russia
2005
CarX Technologies
Moscow (Founded) Multiple offices (Worldwide)
2006
Destiny.Games
Moscow
2008
101XP.com (Also online games)
Moscow (Founded) Nicosia (HQ) Multiple offices (RU, Europe & CN )
2009
Game Garden
Moscow (Founded) San Francisco (HQ)
2009
Colibri Games [ b]
Russia (Founded) [ 16] [ 17] [ 18] Stavanger (Current)
2010
Flashback Games
Saint Petersburg [ 20] [ 21] [ 22] [ 23]
2010
8floor Ltd
RussiaLondon (HQ)
2011
NeoDinamika
Kaliningrad
2011
Clarus Victoria
Moscow (Founded) Multiple RU areas
2013
Four Quarters
Russia
2013
LLC Blini Games
Saint Petersburg
2013
Tequilabyte Studio
Tomsk
2013
Tortuga Team
Kaliningrad
2013
Do My Best Games
Moscow
2014
Fair Games Studio (Also GD Forge)
Kazan
2014
Glyph Worlds
Krasnoyarsk (Founded) UA (Another office)
2014
Nearga Team
Moscow (Founded) Multiple offices (Worldwide)
2014
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
RtsDimon
Chelyabinsk
2016
Rumata Lab
Nizhny Novgorod
2016
Unfrozen Studio
Saint PetersburgLimassol (HQ)
2016
Alter Games
Moscow
2017
Dark Crystal Games
Saint Petersburg (Founded) Varna (HQ) Multiple RU areas
2017
Mighty Morgan
Saint Petersburg
2017
Mundfish
MoscowRockville, Maryland (Corporate)
2017
RedRuins Softworks
Moscow
2017
Tiamat Games
Moscow
2017
Wild Forest Studio
Nizhny Novgorod (Founded) Multiple offices (Europe)
2017
Mono Studio
Samara (Founded) Brooklyn (Office)
2018
Zelart
Volgograd
2018[ 24]
BitLight Games
Russia
2019
Black Caviar Games
Krasnodar
2019
Rummy Games studio (Ex-MV Games. Renamed in 2020.)
Moscow
2019
Different Sense Games
Saint Petersburg
2020
Door 407 game studio
Zelenograd (Founded) , UK (HQ)
2020
Frozen Line
N/A
2020
Kinderril Games
Russia
2020
MadRock Games
Moscow
2020
Magic Hazard
Kyiv & Russia
2020
Mihanikus Games
Moscow
2020
Mr. Pink
Russia
2020
uglycoal
Russia
2020
Game Art Pioneers
Moscow
2021
Co-development services
Company
Location
Founded
Notes
Gameplay First LLC
Russia (Maybe Moscow)
2018
Co-development
Defunct video game developers in Russia
Video game publishers in Russia
Defunct game publishers from Russia
Company
Location
Founded
Defunct
Notes
DOKA Studios (Ex-Doka in 1987 to 1997. Ex-DOKA Media in 1997 to 2005)
Moscow
1987
2001
Publisher & former dev. Ceased publishing games in 2001.
IDDK Group
Moscow
1995
2012
Ceased publishing games.
Snowball Studios
Moscow
1996
2010
Old 1996 name: "Snowball Interactive". Publisher, dev & localizer. Merged with 1C-SoftClub .
Discus Games
Russia
2000
2008
Publisher, distribution & dev. Inactive afterwards.[ 33]
Media-Service 2000
Moscow
2000
2009
Ceased games publishing in 2006 & game sales in 2008.
Gaijin Entertainment
Moscow & Belarus (Founded) , Other RU places (Till early 2010's) Hungary (HQ) [ 34] Offices in Europe & worldwide (Current)
2002
2015
Moved HQ and development staff to Hungary & other EU countries.
Playrix
Vologda (Founded) Dublin (HQ) Multiple offices (Europe )
2004
2022
Closed down offices in RU & BY.
LLC Intenzibne
Magas
2012
2020
Publisher & dev. Inactive afterwards.
Azur Games
Moscow (Founded) Larnaca (HQ) Multiple offices (Caucuses , Dubai )
2016
2022
Closed down offices in RU.
Demographics and popularity
One in 5 Russians self report that they play video games, according to the Moscow Times .[ 35] Video games enjoy mass appeal in Russia.[ 1] [ 36] [ 37] Males make up 58% and females 42% of gamers.[ 38] Russians tend to be impulse buyers.[ 39] According to Newzoo 60% of PC gamers are male and 46% of mobile gamers are female.[ 40] [ 41]
According to J'son and Partners Consulting, the biggest growth in gaming in Russia was mobile and PC games in 2016.[ 42]
Notes
^ SoftLab-Nsk Ltd. is a graphics studio formed by a scientific institute. It has two functions - one for making hardware/software for multimedia & TV broadcasting; the other one for VR systems, imaging systems for training simulators and computer games. They released 4 trucking sims on Windows in 1998 to 2009, but no more new commercial game.
^ Not the same as the German developer Kolibri Games
References
^ a b "Russia Games Market 2018" . Archived from the original on November 29, 2020.
^ "Welcome To Russia, Where Most Of Your Friends Are Video Game Pirates" . Kotaku. Retrieved 2013-05-07 .
^ "Yandex: Russian game market doubled in five years to $2 billion" . January 22, 2020.
^ "Competitive video gaming now officially a sport in Russia" . East-West Digital News . Retrieved 2016-07-26 .
^ Goodfellow, Cat (18 December 2014). "Beyond Tetris: a brief history of patriotic video gaming in Russia" . The Guardian . Retrieved 2 January 2017 .
^ "Какими были первые советские персональные компьютеры" . Российская газета . 4 December 2019.
^ "Советские компьютерные игры" . Форум Альтернативной Истории (ФАИ) .
^ "Автор "Тетриса" о простоте и гениальности своей игры" . Look At Me . June 6, 2014.
^ Goodfellow, Cat (December 18, 2014). "Beyond Tetris: a brief history of patriotic video gaming in Russia" . The Guardian – via www.theguardian.com.
^ a b "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 .
^ "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 .
^ "Russia attempts to turn the patriotic tide by funding new video games" . The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 2013-05-07 .
^ "Музей советских игровых автоматов открылся на новом месте" . The Village . August 11, 2011.
^ "Russians recall bygone era with Soviet game museum" . Reuters . June 14, 2007 – via www.reuters.com.
^ "Russian video arcade captures dying culture" . Salon . Retrieved 2013-05-07 .
^ "Colibri's dev" . Indie DB . Retrieved 30 March 2022 .
^ "Colibri's dev" . Mod DB . Retrieved 30 March 2022 .
^ "Colibri's FILE Festival page" . Electronic Language International Festival . 21 January 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2022 .
^ "Flashback Games' About Us" . Flashback Games' official website . Archived from the original on January 9, 2022. Retrieved 9 June 2022 .
^ "Flashback Games founder's Steam bio" . Steam . Valve . Retrieved June 9, 2022 .
^ "Flashback Games' OGDB page" . Online Games-Datenbank (in German). Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2022 .
^ "Flashback's Panzer Corps 2 review" . 4Players (in German). Funke Digital GmbH . Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2022 .
^ Ellie Harisova (21 December 2020). "(Zelart) "There Is No Light: Environment Design in a Dark 2D Action-Adventure" " . 80 Level . Archived from the original on October 23, 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2022 .
^ "ITEM Multimedia's official website" . www.item2m.com . Archived from the original on December 17, 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2022 .
^ "Apeiron's MobyGames bio" . MobyGames . Atari SA . Retrieved 12 September 2022 .
^ "Apeiron's official website" . apeiron-games.ru . Archived from the original on March 17, 2010. Retrieved 12 September 2022 .
^ "Primal Software's official website" . www.primal-soft.com . Archived from the original on March 10, 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2022 .
^ "Yard Team' official website" . www.yardteam.org . Archived from the original on January 28, 2022. Retrieved 24 December 2022 .
^ "Quant Games' official website" . www.quantgames.com . Archived from the original on July 20, 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022 .
^ Kompanets, Alexander. "AtomTeam founder's LinkedIn bio" . LinkedIn . Microsoft . Retrieved 23 November 2022 .
^ "RainStyle production's official website" . rainstyle.ru . Archived from the original on December 4, 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2023 .
^ "Discus Games' official website" . www.dgames.ru . Archived from the original on March 19, 2018. Retrieved 7 November 2022 .
^ "Hungarian translation: Gamers have always been the soul of video game development" . 24.hu (in Hungarian). September 18, 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2022 .
^ Times, The Moscow (August 19, 2019). "1 in 5 Russians Are Gamers, Poll Says" . The Moscow Times .
^ "Video Games Drive Media Market Growth" . Moscow Times . Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-05-07 .
^ Goodfellow, Catherine (2015). "ONLINE GAMING IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: PRACTICES, CONTEXTS AND DISCOURSES" (PDF) . www.research.manchester.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-04-17 .
^ "An Insider's Guide to the Russian Game Industry | ironSource" . Ironsrc.com. 22 August 2018. Retrieved 2020-04-17 .
^ "Game Insight: Shedding light on Russia's game trends" . Russia Beyond the Headlines . Retrieved 2013-05-07 .
^ "Russian Game Industry Survey 2019" . russia-promo.com .
^ "White Paper: Guide to Online Games Promotion in the Russian Market" . russia-promo.com .
^ "Research of the global and Russian gaming market, 2016 - Контент и мобильные приложения | RUSSIAN ANALYTICS" . json.tv .
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