As the gaming industry continues to proliferate through all manner of world crises and events, the importance of relatively simple and streamlined game production tools and development kits cannot be overstated.Unreal Engine, Unity, and a variety of other multitool engines have been propped up as the leaders in this particular niche, and developers worldwide have come to rely on them for game production.
As ubiquitous asUnreal Enginemay be in this day and age, there’s at least one global superpower that wishes to steer clear of its grasp: Russia. In what looks to be an attempt at diversifying its tech portfolio and setting itself apart from any software kits from the West, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development has seemingly become interested in the development of a domestic video game engine to compete with industry giants.
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The need for a new, locally developed game engine has been described as “important and urgent,” though it comes with the obvious caveat of production cost. Namely, the Russian government would need to spend “billions of rubles over many years” to see the engine fully produced and ready for use, though it’s worth remembering that funding may be an issue now thatgame piracy has been legalized in Russia, effectively invalidating the industry, to begin with. Anton Gorelkin, the vice-chairman of the Information Policy Committee, has even requested that Russia blocks access to Unreal Engine within its borders.
It’s not particularly difficult to understand why the Russian government might be interested in setting itself apart from its Western competitors. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had decimated the country’s economy to the point whereRobloxcurrency was worth more than the Ruble. If the sources reporting on this matter are correct, then it stands to reason that the Russian Ministry of Digital Development has grown suspicious of the domestic developers' reliance on Western software, and would take steps to reduce it.
ThoughEpic Games blocked its commerce with Russiaearly on, the company deliberately left open access to its toolkits and products. This was to facilitate an open line of dialogue for as long as possible, which may well have been one of the reasons why Gorelkin would be interested in blacklisting Epic and its services. Russian game developers may also be concerned that they will lose access to game engines such as Unreal and Unity in due time, effectively leaving them behind as the global gaming industry marches on.
Fans have been enthralled with Unreal Engine 5 ever since it was first launched, with a number of free, small-scale projects having sprung up from virtually nothing in a very short amount of time. While it was possible for a single developer to recreate parts ofGTA 3in Unreal Engine 5relatively quickly and easily, it is unlikely that the purported Russian game engine would be quite as scalable, if it ever comes to fruition in the first place.
