According to Kommersant, the government is considering, as a measure to support Russian developers, to oblige Steam, PlayStation Store, Epic Games Store and other foreign gaming digital distribution platforms to transfer 5% of the country's income to the Patriotic Games Fund and to create national content in the digital environment.
According to the calculations of the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance, such payments will give the fund of patriotic video games support in the amount of up to 10 billion rubles a year. This money will be distributed among Russian developers, including for the creation of games about the Great Patriotic War, famous intelligence officers and special forces. This initiative is also supported and promoted by VK and Yandex, as well as many independent Russian studios.
Market experts are wary of such an initiative. They believe that part of the funds raised can go to poorly designed game projects with political agitation, so the development and spending of such a fund will need to be controlled. They also clarified that the digital platform tax itself is not new - it exists in France and the UK.
Representatives of Russian studios believe that 5% is not such a big fee for working on the Russian market, and digital distribution platforms will not lose a significant part of their income and, on the contrary, can gain loyalty and advertising from the state.
At the beginning of February 2022, the Internet Development Institute announced a competition for state grants for developers of patriotic games.
In April 2021, the government began considering the possibility of providing state support to the developers of patriotic games as part of a special Games Fund. The priority of this Foundation was to develop and create computer, mobile and online game projects that popularize Russian history and culture.
In 2020, Mail.ru Group's revenue from gaming services grew by 30% and amounted to about 40 billion rubles. In total, Russian users spent about 163 billion rubles on games in 2020. By 2021, this figure amounted to more than 165 billion rubles.
bbabo.Net