Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered their government to look into developing a video game console after Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo no longer sell products in the country.

The new edict comes from the Kremlin’s official website (via RT), pushing the government to look into producing not only home video game consoles but also portable game consoles.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the president’s order to make a domestically-produced video game console is aimed at bolstering Russia’s native game industry talent.

Back in February 2022, Russa invaded regions of Ukraine – this led to lots of sanctions from western nations, pay processors cutting Russia off, and the aforementioned major game companies Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo halting all sales in the region.

The new order from Putin came after a meeting on the socio-economic development in the Kaliningrad Region, where the Russian leader also called on their government to look into developing their own operating system, and a cloud system to deliver games and programs to users.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has been selected as the person responsible for overseeing this new project, and a deadline has been set for June 15th, 2024. A creation for the actual game console is planned for sometime in 2026-2027, though.

Back in February, the Organization for Developing the Video Game Industry (RVI) presented a five-year roadmap to the Russian government that focused on an 83-point program for making video games in Russia.

The RVI said this year it plans to re-establish relations with various organizations and funds from the international gaming space that have ties to Russia, as well as establish ways to consistently support games made in Russia.

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