Video games have gone out of business

Game developers have begun evacuating employees from the country, including buying out entire charter flights. This, according to Kommersant, in one of the cases is about the removal of 100 men with their families at once. Market participants say that two-thirds of the employees of game development studios are artists and designers who are not formally IT specialists, that is, they cannot count on a reservation. Panic in the industry is already being used by foreign studios, which previously did not want to take Russians, but are now ready to hire developers fleeing the country so that they do not fall under mobilization.

According to Kommersant’s sources in the video game development market, the studios began to organize the removal of employees from the country against the backdrop of the introduction of partial mobilization on September 21. The producer of a large Russian-language studio, which already moved its business abroad in March, says that one of the video game development companies ordered a charter flight to take about 100 of its male employees, who can be mobilized, with their families out of Russia. The fact that Russian developers hire charter flights to evacuate specialists is also known by a Kommersant source in one of the largest gaming studios in the CIS. He says that “this is not an isolated story.”

Studios that are not able to take employees abroad in an organized manner try to protect them from mobilization in other ways. Alexander Zhuravlev, managing partner of EBR law firm, says that the number of applications for inclusion in the register of accredited IT companies after September 21 has increased significantly. “Supporting the gaming industry has been the focus of attention over the past year, it is likely that the applications of gaming companies will be approved. Studios that make games that are already on the roster can help employees with “relevant college degrees” and get a deferment. Now one of the main questions will be which specialties will receive immunity,” the lawyer explains.

Immediately after the announcement of mobilization, IT companies asked the Ministry of Digital Transformation to provide reservations to employees of specialized companies. The Ministry was one of the first to achieve clarity on this issue and already on September 23 issued clarifications according to which employees of IT companies, telecommunications enterprises and the media can receive a reservation from mobilization, among the criteria are specialized education and work in their specialty (see “Kommersant” from 23 September).

At the same time, according to Kommersant’s interlocutor in a Russian-language studio, the game development market is “in a panic”, because a significant part of the employees, even theoretically, will not be able to receive the reservations promised by the government: “This requires a specialized education in IT, that is, us all management, artists and game designers, and these are two-thirds of the employees of each studio, are at risk. The source of Kommersant adds that if in the past few months the studios that left Russia looked with understanding at the desire of a number of employees to work from the country, now the situation has changed dramatically: “Leaving employees in the country means accepting that someone will be taken away, and you will be left with a personnel hole.

Another interlocutor of Kommersant in a large game studio and advising officials on the development of measures to support the industry confirms that game developers are indeed leaving the country en masse.

“There are two streams: the first is the studio employees who remained in the country, who moved the business abroad after February 24. If until September 21 they were postponing their departure from Russia for personal reasons, now that’s it – grab your bags, the station is leaving,” he says. “The second category is employees of Russian studios who have begun to receive job offers from Western developers. There are several well-known HR in our market who offer to work in foreign companies that previously did not want to take Russians, but are now ready to accept them under the auspices of escaping from mobilization so that they do not go to Ukraine.”

Mobilization has changed the mood in the core labor market, confirms the developer of the PvP.Tools platform, Vasily Ovchinnikov. Game development belongs to IT, and the Ministry of Digital Development, according to him, is in dialogue with business, but “those who work in foreign companies, as well as all individual entrepreneurs and self-employed people remain at risk: there are a lot of the latter among artists and designers.” As a result, out-of-state specialists will seek to conclude an employment contract with the IT business.

Nikita Korolev