On April 4, the game "Smuta" was released. This is the most expensive entertainment game project created at the expense of Russian government agencies.
Alexey Goreslavsky, head of the Institute for Internet Development (IRI), said in an interview with RBC last summer that two grants had been allocated for the development of Smuta:
- the first went to "building mechanics and engine" — 260 million (in 2022);
- The second one was allocated for content — 230 million (in 2023).
This is without taking into account marketing.
"The money didn't go to marketing," Alexey Koptsev, CEO of Cyberia Nova, said in a recent interview with the YouTube channel So Acutely. He refused to name a specific budget for the game.
However, he also noted there that:
- The pre-production of the games began a year and a half before the participation in the IRI competition;
- the current team size is 75 people, excluding freelancers.
Judging by the first reviews and streams, there are questions about the quality of the game. The reviews note problems with the performance of the title, poor quality of voice acting and primitive mechanics. The pros, as a rule, record graphics.
The game is available exclusively on VK Play. There are no plans to release Smuta in other stores or on other platforms.
As Andrei Belov, the producer of the game, told Izvestia the other day: "All other sites are somehow trying to infringe on the audience, so it's risky to go out on them. There you can face the risk of politically motivated decisions regarding the project."