Rotenberg’s company plans to create analogues of FIFA and NHL

The company SMP ESports (“SMP Digital Sports”), owned by Boris Rotenberg, plans to “start developing” football and hockey simulators within three years, which in the future will become analogues of foreign FIFA and NHL. About this in an interview with Kommersant told General Director of the company Georgy Gnutov.

“Our main goal is to create a development team that will not be limited to specific sports, but will be able to create any games based on the domestic engine,” he said.

According to the publication, at the first stage, about 300 million rubles can be invested in the development of this project. In the future, these simulators can replace FIFA and NHL, the developer of which is EA Sports.

It is specified that SMP Digital Sport was registered on July 14, it is 100% owned by Boris Rotenberg, who has another company, SMP Racing. The latter is engaged in the development of racing simulators.

In June, within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum SMP Racing and the multi-sport tournament “Games of the Future” signed partnership agreement under which SMP Racing will be the organizer of the first Figital Auto Championship in Russia, it is planned to be held in Sochi in 2024 during the World Youth Festival. Rotenberg then said that a new stage in the development of the domestic racing simulator had begun, which would become the basis of the domestic game development industry, the organization of sports training for e-sportsmen, and the improvement of road safety.

At the beginning of March 2022, the developer EA announced the suspension of the sale of its products in Russia and Belarus due to a special military operation in Ukraine. In addition, since then, the developer’s games cannot be purchased in the Russian Origin store or in the EA app, including in-game stores. Since July 2022, the developer’s games have been imported to Russia through parallel imports.