Russia is still pushing into making a home-grown console to compete with Xbox, PlayStation

Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his government to organize and create a domestic gaming console that would compete with the likes of the PlayStation and Xbox consoles... with the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade seeking a company to help it create a console.

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However, the ministry is also talking with businesses and other departments to work out if the necessary resources and support are there for the project, with experts doubting a Russian-made console is something that will happen without the Russian government providing subsidies, with massive amounts of time (many years) and investment required.

After Putin's presidential directive in making a Russian-made gaming console, skeptical experts are still concerned, saying that no Russian company is capable of creating a console that competes with Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox console, as these consoles pack some of the most bleeding-edge chips on the market, that cost hundreds of millions, but more like billions of dollars to develop.

Sony and Microsoft sell their consoles at near cost price, making the money for development on their consoles through game sales. Russia is also considering solutions with less upfront costs, just to get into the domestic console market, with options like a portable gaming system like the Valve Steam Deck or ASUS ROG Ally, or creating gaming "sticks" for Smart TVs. We'll see how that goes, Russia.

The Russian government was supposed to "consider the issue of organizing the production of stationary and portable gaming consoles, as well as creating an operating system and a cloud system for delivering games and software to users" by June 15, but that has come and past now. Right now, there are three major Russian cloud gaming platforms: VK Play, MTS Fog Play, and Yandex's Plus Gaming service.

A spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade said: "If the corresponding decision is made, the process of developing the gaming console will need to be synchronized with the development or adaptation of games for it".

Even if Russia created and launched a successful domestic-made game console, it would require around 1 50 games in various genres, including 10+ high-budget games, according to Russian experts, reports the RBC. After that, sales of at least 20 million units with prices of between $500 to $600 would ensure success, added the experts.

Considering that Microsoft has sold around 28.5 million Xbox One consoles worldwide, I very much doubt Russia would come in and even scratch on those sales. Micrsooft has been losing the current-gen console war against Sony, with the PlayStation 5 outselling the Xbox Series X/S for years now.