VK claims that the Russian Nau Engine is made by an independent development team. VK itself acts only as an investor and curator of the project.
Previously, the company has repeatedly said directly that VK is working on the engine. In particular, this was stated by CEO Vladimir Kiriyenko.
“Now we are starting, forming a team that will take up the development of key elements of the engine this year. In 2024, we plan to release the first beta version and start working with the gaming community. Then we will finalize and adapt the server solutions. In 2025, we will release the launch version,” Kiriyenko said at a press conference in February 2023.
The fact that VK is engaged in the development of the Nau Engine was also claimed by the head of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation Maksut Shadaev. Here’s what he said at a February press conference: “VK turned out to be ready to take on such an important and responsible social mission: to create an infrastructure, an open source engine that will be available to all interested developers, reduce barriers to entry and become, in case of restrictions, a possible replacement for other development tools.”
However, now VK claims that there was confusion and the media misunderstood the role of the company:
“In the press materials following the presentation of the engine, the wording was used: the project will be built on an open source model and developed by a professional gaming community, it will be led by VK, which has been operating on the Russian gaming market for more than 15 years.
It may have been misinterpreted. We initially stated that VK invested in the project, while an independent team is engaged in the development,” VK representatives said in a comment on App2Top.
Who is part of the Nau Engine team is unknown. In the privacy policy on the engine’s website, only a certain LLC “N-JINN” is mentioned.