Officials turn the joystick – Newspaper Kommersant No. 199 (7400) of 10/26/2022
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As Kommersant found out, the Ministry of Economy, together with the Ministry of Health, Roskomnadzor and the Ministry of Digital Development, is preparing a bill that will oblige game developers and publishers to label content by age categories, and also prohibit the release and sale of video games in Russia that contain information prohibited for distribution. The content will be monitored by expert organizations, the selection criteria for which will be developed by Roskomnadzor. The initiative threatens to block foreign game distribution platforms that refuse to comply with the requirements of regulators, market participants fear.
“Kommersant” got acquainted with the bill amending the Federal Law “On Information” and the Federal Law “On the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to Their Health”. The document, according to Kommersant’s interlocutor in the government, was prepared by the Ministry of Economy, sending it for approval to Roskomnadzor, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Digital Development. The changes, judging by the content of the document, are necessary to “ensure the safety of computer game content for the health of citizens”, as well as to “prevent the commission of socially dangerous acts under the influence of game content.”
The authors propose to oblige game developers to carry out age marking. Also, they should not allow “the use in game content of information prohibited for distribution in the Russian Federation.” When assigning a label, companies will rely on the opinion of expert organizations. The register of such institutions will be maintained by the Ministry of Digital Development, and the criteria for their selection will be prepared by Roskomnadzor. Distribution of games that contain “content that violates the law”, the authors propose to ban. The document should come into force on March 1, 2024.
In the legislation of the Russian Federation there is no special regulation of computer games yet, Roskomnadzor explained to Kommersant: “The task of the state is to ensure the necessary level of security for society, the protection of history, cultural and traditional values in this area as well.” The Ministry of Health added that “interdepartmental study of these issues is being carried out.” The Ministry of Digital Development and the Ministry of Economy declined to comment.
Now developers use international rules for classifying game content into returnable categories, says Gadzhi Makhtiev, owner of the Kanobu portal: “The developer contacts the European rating organization PEGI, which examines the game and gives it a rating.”
Mr. Makhtiev believes that if the new regulation is adopted, video games that are distributed, including through digital platforms, may be under attack: “Roskomnadzor and the prosecutor’s office will have the right to demand from Steam or the Epic Games Store to prevent the sale of games to Russian customers, where, say, one of the gay characters.” If Steam ignores the requirements, the authorities will have a tool to completely block the site, the expert believes.
Since the beginning of Russia’s hostilities in Ukraine, foreign Steam and PlayStation have limited the purchase of licensed games for users from the Russian Federation, but schemes for circumventing restrictions have appeared on the network (see Kommersant dated July 22). Foreign platforms now compete with My.Games (in September, VK sold the site for $642 million to LETA Capital manager Alexander Chachava) and VK.Play. VK declined to comment. The top manager of a large gaming company stressed that the regulation of games today is “in the context of the general policy” of the authorities regarding content: “But a balanced approach is needed. The bill should be discussed with the industry.”
Games are most actively regulated in China, says Kirill Lyakhmanov, chief legal adviser of the EDB intellectual property practice: “To publish a foreign game, it is checked for prohibited content – from images of skulls to denial of China’s territorial borders.” From August 2021 until spring 2022, Chinese authorities have not approved any new games, according to Statista. As a result, according to Statista, in 2022, “the global gaming market will go negative in terms of the number of players for the first time.” If a new bill is adopted and serious sanctions are imposed on violators, the distribution of a number of games in the Russian Federation may stop, the lawyer admits. But, Mr. Lyakhmanov believes, this will not affect the very availability of games that can be downloaded from torrents.
Games in the discontented
Attempts to regulate gaming content appeared as early as 1993 in the United States. The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary held hearings in connection with the release of “Night Trap”, which contained scenes of violence against women. The first gaming-related lawsuit was filed in 1997 by Florida lawyer Jack Thompson representing the parents of children killed in a school shooting. The lawyer asked the court to ban the distribution of a number of games and the film “The Basketball Diaries”, which, in his opinion, led to the shooting. The court rejected the claims. The first bill to ban “harmful” video games appeared in the US in 2000. It concerned the use of slot machines by minors without parental supervision, but never entered into force.
In Russia, foreign games have repeatedly caused dissatisfaction with the authorities. In January 2010, State Duma deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party Valery Seleznev proposed that the game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” by the American Activision be included in the list of extremist games because of the story mission “Not a word in Russian”, in which the main character becomes an accomplice in the execution of visitors to the Moscow airport. The publisher removed the mission from the Russian version of the game.
There were also questions about the presentation of historical events in the games. In September 2013, blogger Bad Comedian (Evgeny Bazhenov) published a review of the Canadian Relic’s WW2 strategy Company of Heroes 2. Questions from the blogger were caused, among other things, by story missions in the Soviet campaign. Users published petitions demanding to ban the distribution of the game in the Russian Federation. The distributor “1C-SoftClub” has suspended sales of copies of the game in the country.
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