Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
has the largest video games market in Europe, with an estimated 65.2 million players nationwide as of 2018. Even though
piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
has been a great issue in the Russian gaming industry,
the games market more than doubled in the past five years to over $2 billion in 2019.
In 2001, Russia became the first country in the world to officially recognize competitive video gaming ( eSports) as a sport.
History
The history of mass videogaming in Russia (back then in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
) takes its roots in the early 1980s when personal computers of different models ( Atari 400/800, Commodore 64,
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.
Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
48/128) were brought to the country from United States, Europe, Japan and China. At the same time, a local company,
Electronika
Elektronika, also spelt Electronika and Electronica (russian: Электроника, "Electronics"), is the brand name used for many different electronic products built by factories belonging to the Soviet Ministry of Electronic Industry, incl ...
, released a series of portable game consoles which were mostly clones of Nintendo products. By the middle of the 80s Soviet programmers and enthusiasts began to try to develop their own games. The most famous Russian game designer of that era is
Alexey Pajitnov
Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov. (born 16 April 1955) is a Russian-born American computer engineer and video game designer. He is best-known for designing and developing ''Tetris'' in 1984 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre under the ...
, who created the worldwide megahit ''
Tetris
''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appro ...
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
ese hardware clone (
Famiclone
A Famiclone is any clone console of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), known in Japan as the Family Computer or Famicom. They are electronic hardware devices designed to replicate the workings of, and play games designed for, the NES and Fa ...
) of the
Famicom
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redes ...
(Nintendo Entertainment System), was released for the Russian market in 1992. By 1994, over one million Dendy units were sold in Russia. The Dendy went on to sell a total of units in Russia and other
post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
.
In 2010, Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of Russia encouraged local video game companies to make video games that were patriotic as it was felt foreign video game publishers made games that were
anti-Russian
Anti-Russian sentiment, commonly referred to as Russophobia, is dislike or fear of Russia, the Russians, Russian culture. or Russian policy. The Collins English Dictionary defines it as intense and often irrational hatred of Russia. It is the ...
.
Arcades
The first Soviet arcade game machines did not contain digital graphics, and the games' interface had to be emulated with help of physical objects.
Russian game developers
Defunct video game developers in Russia
Video game publishers in Russia
Defunct game publishers from Russia
Demographics and popularity
One in 5 Russians self report that they play video games, according to the ''
Moscow Times
''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates su ...
''. Video games enjoy mass appeal in Russia. Males make up 58% and females 42% of gamers. Russians tend to be impulse buyers. According to Newzoo 60% of PC gamers are male and 46% of mobile gamers are female.
According to J'son and Partners Consulting, the biggest growth in gaming in Russia was mobile and PC games in 2016.