The Ministry of Digital Development has prepared a list of foreign services and software and their potential Russian analogues

The Ministry of Digital Development has prepared a list of Russian developments and services that it considers an acceptable analogue of foreign developments in the field of video games. The document, which Kommersant reviewed, mentions video game publications and portfolio creation services as part of the “IT landscape.” Experts believe that this is more about a description of the industry, rather than a list of applicants for state support. But they note that sites that live thanks to user communities cannot serve as a replacement for foreign ones.

Kommersant got acquainted with the presentation of the “IT landscape” of the video game industry prepared by the Ministry of Digital Development – lists of foreign services and software and their potential Russian analogues. The presentation was prepared by participants in the specialized development competence center (CDC) “Game Services” under the ministry, and slides from it were included in the materials for the meeting of the software expert council.

In addition to products related directly to the development and distribution of video games (for example, the Nau Engine developed by VK and the VK Play store), the document also mentions “near-game services.” These include online media that publish gaming industry news and game reviews – DTF (part of the Committee Publishing House), GameGuru and iXBT.games. These sites are positioned as an analogue of the game rating aggregator Metacritic and the wiki encyclopedia service for interests Fandom.

“Near-game services” include those that the Ministry of Digital Development considers to be analogues of Behance and DeviantArt. These are the photo bank “Lori” and the online portfolio sites Portfolios and PhotoPR. Previously, representatives of the Russian gaming industry, who were included in the specialized Central Committee of the Commission, discussed with the Ministry of Digital Development the risks of losing access to content licensing services, in particular to audio stocks (see Kommersant on January 31).

Representatives of all three services told Kommersant that they did not know about their inclusion in the list. Portfolios CEO Evgeniy Nikitin and PhotoPR owner Mikhail Demenshin clarified that they did not apply for support under the Game Services Center. The website of the company ONI, which owns PhotoPR, says that the owners are considering selling the business, social networks and the date in the basement has not been updated since 2016. Chief editor of iXBT.com Ilya Rubtsov also noted that the publication did not submit applications and “did not think about the need for support from the state.” Other media did not respond to Kommersant.

The presentation also noted classes of software and services in which, in principle, there are no Russian developments and which at the same time cover “current industry needs.” These are the services for localizing video games (MemoQ and Trados Studio), purchasing game traffic and “ensuring the development of next-generation gaming platforms” (specific examples are not given).

The Ministry of Digital Development explained to Kommersant that the list includes “developed by Russian developers and covering certain areas of the IT landscape.” Kirill Lyakhmanov, chief legal adviser of the intellectual property practice of the EDB law firm, believes that the list was compiled “not for the purpose of providing benefits or preferences, but to determine the potential consequences of blocking the “external” Internet and vectors for the development of import substitution.” He was surprised that Behance and DeviantArt were called “near-game” services, but gaming consoles were not mentioned in the document.

Many Russian services with a strong social component have historically been created as adaptations of foreign ones, notes the developer of the ProZen analytics extension, Igor Torkhov: “In the end, they use both, since different communities are formed on different platforms.” He clarifies that many resources have not been able to create “their own active audience.”

Yuri Litvinenko, Yulia Yurasova