The Organization for the Development of the Video Game Industry (ODVGI) has criticized the draft law titled "On the Activity of Developing and Distributing Video Games within the Russian Federation." Representatives of the organization stated that the initiative would harm the domestic game dev industry instead of supporting it.
According to an official statement by ODVGI, the appearance of the draft law was an unpleasant surprise. The organization considers its requirements to be overly strict.
"Moreover, the draft law has clear contradictions with the president’s decrees on industry support, as well as with the work of the Ministry of Digital Development and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation," added ODVGI.
One of the problems of the draft law, according to ODVGI, is its prohibitive nature. In particular, ODVGI is concerned about the requirement to authorize Russian users in games through the State Services portal.
The organization is convinced that foreign platforms will not comply with it, leading to their blocking. If this happens, both Russian developers and ordinary players will suffer.
ODVGI also raised concerns about the sections of the draft law regarding mandatory negative labeling of games and its review process. In the organization's opinion, everything is currently outlined non-transparently and could lead to additional problems.
"We firmly believe that this draft law should be developed in close cooperation with the industry and professional associations. [...] Unfortunately, the current initiative sets us back by several years. The combined efforts of government institutions, including the President, the Government, and Russian developers, if not nullified, are significantly diminished by this, taking away from what we've managed to rebuild over this time," stated the organization's statement.