Russia Allocates Billions To Develop 'Patriotic' Video Games Amid The Ukraine War

Russia is allocating billions of government funds to produce and develop video games with a patriotic slant amid its nearly 12-month war in Ukraine, according to a report.

The development has already begun for several video games, including one based on the Time of Troubles, a Russian private military company in Africa, and another where two school children travel through time to learn Russian history, as per global news publication The Insider.

"For the first time Russia is pouring government funds into the production of computer games with a patriotic slant," the outlet wrote. "The Insider managed to learn about the game budgets and even got a chance to play the government-sponsored games that have already been developed."

Another game being developed by Russia is titled Counterintelligence where players are transported to 1903. The video game is being designed with the aim of teaching players Russian history and fostering patriotism.

The development of video games is funded by the IRI, a non-profit organization established in 2015 at the behest of the Russian presidential administration. Initially, the organization focused on producing films, blogs and podcasts. It expanded its focus to include game development last year.

IRI's general director Alexei Goreslavsky previously pledged to allocate no less than 1 billion rubles ($13.7 million) toward game development efforts in 2022, as translated via Google Translate.

In addition to funding the development of "patriotic" video games, it was also reported last year that Russia is discussing a federal initiative dubbed "The Gaming Industry of the Future," which aims to allocate as much as $50 billion toward supporting Russian game studios, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

The initiative also aims to release at least 25 video games by 2030 with a budget of 6.5 billion rubles ($89 million) or higher. The initiative will be overseen by a new entity called Rosgame.

It is important to note, however, that the initiative is still in its infancy and has had no further developments since December of last year. The funding from Rosgame also has no correlation with the funding from IRI.