On December 29, the Russian Watt Studio announced the suspension of the creation of the game TRAINS: Through electric storms. The developers said that they could not agree with the Internet Development Institute (IRI) and receive money from the promised grant for 100 million rubles. Soon after, the IRI made an explanation of its position.
Here is the comment of the IRI in its entirety:
“Indeed, WATT GAMES LLC won the national content competition in October 2022 and was given the opportunity to conclude a contract. The condition for the implementation of the project is the co-financing of the project by the contractor, all participants of the competition agree to this by going to the face-to-face defense of projects and signing a framework agreement. Apparently, WATT GAMES LLC could not find the necessary funding and decided to report this in the project’s public.
The task of the IRI is to make the terms of contracts as transparent as possible, but to approach each winner individually, offering several financing scenarios at once. In the case of WATT GAMES LLC, it was proposed to divide the project and its payment into five stages, based on the readiness of the product. This approach allows the parties to be confident in the qualitative step-by-step production of the product.
Today IRI received a message that the contractor is not ready to conclude a contract.
The decision to sign a contract for the production of a game, TV series or any other content product is made by each winner of the IRI competition independently, based on the balance of opportunities, obligations and risks. ANO “IRI” is always ready to do the maximum possible to ensure that projects take place.”