Russia to develop its own "Steam," Consoles, and O.S.

[Morkonan]

https://www.techspot.com/news/102440-putin-orders-creation-russian-game-consoles-cloud-delivery.html

Vladimir Putin orders creation of Russian game consoles, Steam-like cloud delivery, and OS

In brief: With so many sanctions placed against the country over its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia wants to develop more home-grown technologies. Now, President Vladimir Putin has called on the government to create Russian stationary and portable game consoles, along with operating systems and cloud-based game delivery systems for the machines.

Putin made the order following a meeting on the socio-economic development of Kaliningrad. The deadline for the government to come up with the plans is June 15, 2024. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has been appointed responsible for overseeing the task....

So, Putin is going full "Epic" on Valve?

Will he get a "u mad bro" email from Valve?


It's conceivable that what we could see happen is that Russia just develops its own "Great Firewall" like China's in an attempt to ban outside media including game markets like Valve. It appears that Putin also wants to examine the games, themselves, for what he may consider to be "propaganda."

For any Russians that may still be friendly with fellow gamers in The West, that could be very disconcerting.

And, what happens when Russia's own "OS" is developed, perhaps even hardware mandated?


Creating an isolationist market isn't the answer. If this moves forward, isolating Russians on Russian hardware, in a Russian intranet, using computers running Russian OSs is just cramming a lot of potential into a very small fishbowl of possibilities. It's ridiculous and won't move Russia forward in technological progress in any sense at all.

It'll be interesting to see if this program is ever truly realized and what the reactions of literally "everyone else" are going to be.

[WarHeRo]

competition is always cool

[HypersleepyNaputunia]

no problem with it competition is great like he said. thats what sanctions do in long run

[SvarogX]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Morkonan:

https://www.techspot.com/news/102440-putin-orders-creation-russian-game-consoles-cloud-delivery.html

Vladimir Putin orders creation of Russian game consoles, Steam-like cloud delivery, and OS

In brief: With so many sanctions placed against the country over its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia wants to develop more home-grown technologies. Now, President Vladimir Putin has called on the government to create Russian stationary and portable game consoles, along with operating systems and cloud-based game delivery systems for the machines.

Putin made the order following a meeting on the socio-economic development of Kaliningrad. The deadline for the government to come up with the plans is June 15, 2024. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has been appointed responsible for overseeing the task....

So, Putin is going full "Epic" on Valve?

Will he get a "u mad bro" email from Valve?


It's conceivable that what we could see happen is that Russia just develops its own "Great Firewall" like China's in an attempt to ban outside media including game markets like Valve. It appears that Putin also wants to examine the games, themselves, for what he may consider to be "propaganda."

For any Russians that may still be friendly with fellow gamers in The West, that could be very disconcerting.

And, what happens when Russia's own "OS" is developed, perhaps even hardware mandated?


Creating an isolationist market isn't the answer. If this moves forward, isolating Russians on Russian hardware, in a Russian intranet, using computers running Russian OSs is just cramming a lot of potential into a very small fishbowl of possibilities. It's ridiculous and won't move Russia forward in technological progress in any sense at all.

It'll be interesting to see if this program is ever truly realized and what the reactions of literally "everyone else" are going to be.

Considering Russia is not a third world country and has sent the first human ever to space, I say they are well capable of developing a gaming console and perhaps even succeed at doing so, maybe even a pretty decent one ?

We will see, but as WarHeRo has said, competition is always good !

Now that being said, the sanctions against Russia do only one thing, which is to make Russia an even more powerful and independent economy than they already were.

I like it ! Looking forward to see this console.

[replika]

stuff nobody cares about part 3

[SvarogX]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Eld3r:

Russia has been working on a firewall for a few years

Russian companies have come up with NUMEROUS firewalls and also commercialised these.

[SvarogX]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Eld3r:

Oprindeligt skrevet af HombreGaucho:

Considering Russia is not a third world country and has sent the first human ever to space, I say they are well capable of developing a gaming console and perhaps even succeed at doing so, maybe even a pretty decent one ?

We will see, but as WarHeRo has said, competition is always good !

Now that being said, the sanctions against Russia do only one thing, which is to make Russia an even more powerful and independent economy than they already were.

I like it ! Looking forward to see this console.

that first man in space happened 63 years ago

Thats true and the negative arguments, remarks and underestimation about Russia or back then the USSR were exactly the same as today.

So what changed ?

[Tonepoet]

They already have their own console. It's called the Dendy[metopal.com]. It's definitely not a bootlegged N.E.S. in disguise with counterfeit games.

[SvarogX]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Tonepoet:

They already have their own console. It's called the Dendy. It's definitely not a bootlegged N.E.S. in disguise with counterfeit games.

They HAD it, this was a discontinued project during the 90s.

[A&A]

Well, you're in Russia and you can't buy anything from Steam, and you can't buy new consoles and other computer devices that cheap except from the Chinese, and that makes them a monopoly, to some extent there is logic, because this is not a small market. And in order to keep their prices low, their own production for small quantities and competiton in such a market is more than enough.

I don't know about their operating system, but I'm guessing it will be some Linux distribution like north korean's red star or whatever it was called. xD

[SvarogX]

Oprindeligt skrevet af A&A:

Well, you're in Russia and you can't buy anything from Steam, and you can't buy new consoles and other computer devices that cheap except from the Chinese, and that makes them a monopoly, to some extent there is logic, because this is not a small market. And in order to keep their prices low, their own production for small quantities and competiton in such a market is more than enough.

This AND the fact that Russia can sell and expand to numerous other countries also being sanctioned by the west or countries that are generally just not too close to western economy, the biggest one being China. Russian products are actively sold there already.

[DoomsDay]

its always a people issue. will gamer use it, will developer use it, how up to date with the latest need and trend in gaming and social life. these are related to virtual games, games are much like books, the truth is one doesn't need to read book to be a pro at life. some of the book put nasty spells on the reader,
so why read book at all, to be eloquent? for the elegance in argument? or to have something to talk about with psychologist,with a language and logic behind that's not even ours or anyone's.

this cant be the message, some of the book has been trying to tell me, I only can pick up the very shallow message.

[Uncle Sam]

Oprindeligt skrevet af A&A:

Well, you're in Russia and you can't buy anything from Steam, and you can't buy new consoles and other computer devices that cheap except from the Chinese, and that makes them a monopoly, to some extent there is logic, because this is not a small market. And in order to keep their prices low, their own production for small quantities and competiton in such a market is more than enough.

I don't know about their operating system, but I'm guessing it will be some Linux distribution like north korean's red star or whatever it was called. xD

This OP, eventually it's going to lead to more competition, which is good for the free market. The current AAA videogames oligopoly lead us to the current anti-consumer tactics that are very common nowadays, same applies to Nvidia GPU prices among other shenaningans...

In regards to OS my guess it might be a Linux based system. In other words the more countries that make their own games, their own consoles, their own storefronts, their own CPU's / GPU's the better for the average consumer imho.

[HypersleepyNaputunia]

will probably try a rus os just for once on an extra harddrive but prob wouldnt trust it for backdoors or anything serious.

[ナルゴ]

>Making their own DRM platform
Doable. But the problem is Russian consumers currently want to play western titles. Titles that will likely not be in this hypothetical Steam replacement because of current sanctions.
And I'm not confident that they'll be able to develop alternatives to things like DOTA 2, World of Tanks, and Minecraft, because they had just lost an entire generation of IT professionals (conscripted or fled russia) due to the ongoing conflict.
Maybe they can buy the latest Tencent slop I suppose.

>Making their own OS
Realistically, it's going to be similar to what China did which is make their own linux distro.
From there, they'll just use the current open source tools for getting windows applications running on their OS.Assuming they don't outright start building linux native video games.

>Making their own consoles
Honestly a waste of time

[Morkonan]

Oprindeligt skrevet af HombreGaucho:

..
I like it ! Looking forward to see this console.

Note: Long boring tech-sector and national strategic interest sort of post, below. Nobody is required to read it, so feel free to skip.

TLDR - This isn't about "gaming."


In truth, it's really not about "gaming."

It's about trying to bolster Russia's problematic chip/electronics industry.


Things like this are line-items in strategies to help support technological development and industrial innovation.

Russia has not had good results in the past with chip and high-end electronics. To be fair, a good portion of the world has relied overmuch on importing processor chips. Many nations are pursuing their own chip industries and ways to support them. Russia currently relies on imports, some products from a less-capable industry (sometimes prone to defects) and clandestine purchases.

But, to bolster or support such programs, governments promote development in related industries. If you want more capacity in an automotive industrial sector, you build highways and encourage travel to spur local demand for automobiles, to encourage and pay for increased production of same, to expand tool manufacturing, expertise, the value of related human capital, road-building capacity, high and low tech jobs, etc...

That's what this really is.

The catchy and appealing headline aimed at pop audiences is just hype. The aim is to support development of processor manufacture by creating a demand for it.


BUT...

It can not work "competitively."

"Luckily" for Russia, the embargoes and sanctions have created an isolated environment that is only permeated by clandestine purchases of foreign products and the few trading partners that still offer supply. That does create an isolated market for products that could be in high demand. Until... those sanctions and embargoes are lifted. Russia's chip market is basically in a fishbowl at the moment.

In order to continue to supplement and fund such production, it will have to be both financially supported by the government as well as being supported by regulatory powers or protectionist trade restrictions.

This sort of artificial environment can support growth in processor/chip production, provided the industry can produce viable products. Russia has, in the past couple of years, attempted to expand production in more capable chips, but the results haven't been good.

(Note: Links may not always be to direct sources, but their illustrative for the post, not authoritative)

Russia plans to support and enable more capable chip production than in the past:

https://www.slkoric.com/other-else-55208/685629.html

But, to reach parity with high-end chip production in other nations, Russia has a ways to go.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/russia-aims-to-mass-produce-28nm-chips-by-2027-14nm-by-2030 (Quick article example of the subject)

Keep in mind these are "plans." They are not "realities."

This is the more-or-less current "high-tech" goals:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/12/the-race-between-intel-samsung-and-tsmc-to-ship-the-first-2nm-chip/

That's a far cry from 130nm, which it can do now, or 65nm, which is the next planned halmark, with 28nm being the goal for 2027... A goal I'm doubtful they will reach, considering what is needed.

Modern chip tech that would typically be found in Intel/IBM/etc is around 7nm, by comparison. (*One could say 10nm.. or 14... or 8... see below.)


So... :)

Take a look, as an example, of all the "plans" for 3nm production made by the already very capable and more advanced industries, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_nm_process


What does ALL of this mean?

A Russian "Console," if it's limited to a "Made in Russia" sort of development program, might be the size of a piece of luggage or a single-drawer file cabinet if "similar" capability is desired when compared to XboxOne/PS5. And, it can double as a KFC chicken warmer... No idea on the end-user cost, though, but it would be very substantial and likely very heavily subsidized.

And, a handheld console unit, like Valve's Steam Deck?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_2

At this point, I find some bits hard to process...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_nm_process

But, I think I've illustrated the issue fairly for demonstration at least, if not well enough to translate to an industry Power-Point Presentation. (It's certainly as boring as one, I bet.)


I wouldn't encourage you to expect anything revolutionary coming from this program for quite awhile longer than the planned, "expected," goals describe. And, whether or not it any market demand could be successfully grown in the commercial market if embargoes are lifted... is highly suspect. It'd have to be a market that's nearly barred from non-Russian competitors, IMO, for private demand to significantly encourage growth. Any product that could hit Russian markets is likely going to be in very low supply, too.


But, you won't be getting Power-Point Presentations anymore if Putin's attempt succeeds, so you have that to look forward to I guess.


PS: If all this says anything at all that anyone should think about, it's the industrial capability and value of companies like TSMC. Don't think that TSMC is that big of a deal, dear Reader? Think again. Those Steam Decks rely on it as well as a ton of other cutting-edge gizmos.