Russia's EA?

2023 is wild already.

We talk quite a lot about the sheer amount of money generated by the game's industry because it's quite literally the only inarguable point of impressive supremacy that no bigoted and opinionated entertainment industry elitist can take away from us. You can call video games pale imitations of real art, unworthy of the same levels of reverence and respect as movies and TV shows; but you can't erase the exsistence of the several billion it generates yearly. Even if the vast majority of those billions are generated through the most lowdown and distasteful elements of our industry, the money is real and it is very alluring to entities out there who want an easy route to riches. Be that Hollywood studios with their endless adaptations, investment circles with their wagons of venture capital, or beleaguered warring countries balancing a tightrope across a pit of widespread ecological collapse? Wait a minute, what is that last one referring to-

Oh, Russia. Yeah, that makes sense.

Russia is a country that has had itself a little bit of a 'gaming moment' over the past year, if you're picking up what I'm putting down. They've resembled a little bit of a 'Ubisoft' or a 'Blizzard' if we translate the equivalent of those game companies and appropriately scale up the size and seriousness to a geopolitical scale. (And no, will not apologize for the way that reflects back on those game developers; the insult is meant whole heartedly.) Which is to say, they're kind of in a pickle of their own creation right now. Okay, of their general leadership's creation, but we all bear the blame of the people we have in charge, whether fair or not. That pickle being money. Bad choices and predictable repercussions for those choices have left the Russian economy cut off in various sectors from the rest of the world, which is a problem when you are of the incredible size of Russia. And when you're after money, doesn't it make sense to turn to the most profitable sectors you can?

That's right, Russia is about to launch their very own government backed E-sports team that plans to sweep the world winning various tournaments to bring those winnings back to the Kremlin! Huh? E-sports winnings are so pitiful that even if they won every event they would hardly bring back enough revenue to keep the lights on in Moscow for more than a week? Well nuts, that's my ideas run dry. What else could Russia be considering in order to try and beef up their general revenue? It's not like the government can fund an initiative to create their very own game studio with the intention to serve as 'Russia's EA' in a blatantly desperate bid to try and score some of the billions that EA generates on a yearly basis, right? Huh? That's exactly what they're doing? Well damn, voice in my head; that sounds like a blog which pretty much writes itself!

Yes indeed. According to the journalist integrity of 'GamingBible', and they very much appear to be the genesis of this story so I defer to the weight of their reporting arm if this turns out to be wildly untrue; Russia have plans to create their own equivalent to Electronic Arts with the intention of supplementing their flagging economy. Now there's been talk in the past of the creation of some 'internal game engine' being designed for Russia, so this isn't the first time we've heard word that Russia wants to move big into gaming in the coming years, but this is the first time we've heard of a target and a goal as blatant as how GamingBible puts it. Word is the government there want their "Russian Electronic Arts to help streamline the release of high quality Russian games". Which is just a trip, isn't it?

Now to be fair, this is far from the first time we've heard word of Russia 'going it's own way' ,so to speak, in various industries that they've either shunned or had shunned for them. When McDonalds pulled out of the country, the government leapt up to replace the missing arches with their own alternative before the ravenous fast food cravings of their people could turn in murderous blood lust- as the rest of the western world lives under constant fear of that same thing happening should McDonalds ever forsake us. (Please be merciful on out fragile people: Lord Ronald!) But filling the void of a standardised fast food conglomerate and mimicking the stylings of one of the most successful game publishers in the world are the tiniest bit distinct from one another in terms of skilful execution. Especially with the way that Russia is going about it.

For one, they picked EA for an example; which is questionable. I'm not saying that because of my general dislike for the company, but more because the thing which makes EA so successful is their scale of customers, which Russia simply can't replicate after they callously cut themselves off from the rest of the world. Plus, EA's internal annual billions come from their insanely profitable sports titles; a sector around which EA guards many vicious exclusivity contracts. Russia's EA could very well create their own version of that style of game centred purely around their own home sports team, but their potential consumer base would probably not hit America, or England, or india, or Germany or Brazil. Russia is also one of the biggest portions of EA players, so Russia would literally be fighting for market relevance through it's own citizens too. It'll be a gamble, no doubt. 

And why aren't they focusing on following the example of any of the actual varied video game hit makers of the day? To forge their own creative example in a less crowded market and make their splash there? Why not copy the vastly lauded work the Sony Game studios and publish games of that calibre? Simple, because Sony helped publish 'The Last of Us' one time, and Russia found that game icky because there were gay people in it. I'm not even kidding, the Last of Us was banned in Russia because of it's 'LGBT propaganda'. Imagine their absolute shock when they realised there was an actual whole game around those few seconds of girls kissing each other too! EA seems like a safer bet, but that's only because EA has spent so long and so much money worming itself into a stranglehold over it's position that they won't let anyone else take from them. Neither direct competitor nor foreign country.

What really concerns me is the talk of this mysterious 'Rosgame', the plan launched by the Russian government to fund the 'Future of game development'; because any money starved organisation pimping you the 'future' of anything has the absolute worst intentions in mind, bar none. Even in their attempt we're likely to see some painful corrupting influences for the industry leaking out from the only government in the world eager to actually fund video game creation. (Okay, I guess Poland did fund some of CDPR's efforts; but we saw how Cyberpunk Online turned out, didn't we?) Whatever happens with Russia's EA or their 'Rosgame' initiative, I guess for some insane reason the antics of the Russian government are going to become regular topics of discussion in gaming circles throughout the years to come. What a wild world we live in!