The government is trying to find extra-budgetary funding for the e-sports competition “Games of the Future”

The government is trying to find extra-budgetary funding and expand the potential audience of the Future Games, an international e-sports competition scheduled to take place in February 2024. In particular, it is proposed to involve bookmaker companies in organizing games, as well as introduce new disciplines. One of them could be competitions in an e-sports boxing simulator.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the minutes of the meeting, which took place on September 6 with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko with the participation of member of the executive committee of the Russian Boxing Federation Umar Kremlev, head of the “Games of the Future” project Igor Stolyarov, government staff, etc. The meeting, judging by the document, was dedicated to attracting extra-budgetary funding for the Games of the Future.

Following the meeting, the participants received a number of instructions. So, for example, Mr. Kremlev and the head of the ANO “Agency for the Development of Computer Sports” (ARKIVS) Anton Kara were instructed to submit proposals to the government by October 4 for “the creation of a Russian gaming simulator in boxing, martial arts and other areas.” In addition, the parties were instructed to help promote the “Games of the Future” through regional branches of the Boxing Federation, to attract “famous boxers and other athletes” to participate in the “Games of the Future”, as well as “to assist in attracting bookmaker companies to organize the acceptance of interactive bets on events “Games of the Future”

The press service of the Games of the Future told Kommersant that ARKIVS and the Boxing Federation are “clarifying the terms of reference and working on sources of financing” for the project to develop a boxing simulator. ARKIVS General Director Anton Kara did not answer Kommersant, and Dmitry Chernyshenko’s office did the same.

In 2023, structures of famous Russian businessmen showed interest in developing video game simulators. Thus, Boris Rotenberg’s SMP Digital Sports company intends to develop football and hockey simulators that can replace games from EA Sports – FIFA and NHL. Previously, the company announced plans to develop a racing simulator. It is assumed that all three games will become e-sports equipment (see “Kommersant” dated April 4 and August 31).

In turn, Umar Kremlev (he owns 51% in Sports Lotteries LLC, which distributes the National Lottery) began to show interest in the video game industry at the end of October this year. So, on October 20, at a meeting of the Council on Physical Education and Sports, he proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin “to include Internet games in a single regulator, so that everything is in the .ru zone, and all software and servers are on the territory of the Russian Federation” (quote from TASS) . “Kommersant” sent a request to Mr. Kremlev’s representative asking him to explain the initiative, but no response was received.

The founder of the rawg.io portal, Gadzhi Makhtiev, suggests that the interest of non-core Russian companies and organizations in developing game simulators is caused by a “window of opportunity” that appeared after the state announced plans to allocate large funding to the “Games of the Future.” If we talk about the simulator itself, Mr. Makhtiev continues, it will not be easy to create it by February 2024: “If we are talking about a mobile simulator, then its development from scratch will take six months and will require several tens of millions of rubles, but if we are talking about a project for consoles and PC, then this is at least several million dollars and at least two years of development.” The time frame for creating the game, he clarifies, will be long, since such projects require the use of complex technologies.

Nikita Korolev, Yuri Litvinenko