Today it became known about the government’s plans to establish a special fund to support games that popularize Russian history and culture. It is reported that the main initiators — Mail.ru Group and Yandex, and the project itself can work by analogy with the Cinema Fund.The initiative was included in the latest edition of the second package of measures to support the IT industry, Kommersant reports.
About the promotion of the idea from the outside Mail.ru Group and Yandex were informed by two sources to Kommersant. Another interlocutor also said that the initiative is supported by the Presidential Administration. At the same time, the mentioned companies currently have no projects that would fall under the popularization of Russian culture and history.
Exactly how the selection process of the games will take place is still unknown, but one of the sources said that the mechanism is “being worked out”. Now the fund is being compared with the current Cinema Fund, which co-finances domestic films on a return basis.
At the same time, a number of experts are skeptical about the initiative. Pavel Ryakkonen, head of WN Media Group, considers the amount of VAT on the purchase of advertising on foreign sites to be a much more pressing problem than the creation of such a fund. “The cost of attracting a foreign audience increases by this very VAT, and in the Russian jurisdiction, unlike a number of others, there is no mechanism to avoid this tax,” he notes.
Haji Maktiyev, the owner of Igromania and Kanobu, believes that the gaming industry does not need such state support. “Russian game developers primarily focus on the global market, in which such content has a chance not to enter,” he said.
Last month, the RBC publication announced plans to create a Fund for Russian online content. Then it was about supporting online cinemas and TV series creators, as well as game developers. According to Kommersant, the document now only mentions the gaming market.