Russian President Vladimir Putin orders Russian-made gaming system, like Xbox and PlayStation

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed his government to look into the requirements for organizing the production of both game consoles and portable gaming consoles in Russia.

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Making them in Russia, producing them in Russia, and even creating a special operating system and cloud system for delivering games and programs to gamers. President Putin's deadline for executing the order is June 15, 2024, which is only a few months away.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin oversees the completion of the task, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that Putin's order to consider the creation of a domestically-produced console will help develop Russia's native gaming industry. The Organization for Developing the Video Game Industry (RVI) provided a five-year roadmap to the Russian government in February, laying out an 83-point program for developing games in Russia.

RVI said earlier this year that it had plans to re-establish relations with various funds and organizations in the international gaming community that work with Russia and create ways to help support the development of games in Russia. RVI has also said that a full-fledged, Russian-made console will be coming in 2026-2027.

Earlier this month, Russia hosted its first Games of the Future tournament, an event that took place in the city of Kazan and ran between February 21 and March 3. The "phygital" (physical and digital) format of the competition saw the combination of traditional sports and esports, with a mix of 21 combined disciplines. This included "phygital" football, hockey, and basketball, along with esports and high-tech contests, including drone racing, competitive programming, and even robot battles.

The first-ever Games of the Future tournament had over 270 teams involved, coming from 107 countries, and watched by a "global audience," said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.