Report: Almost half of Russian game industry workers are leaving the country
Russia's invasion of Ukraine might have dire consequences for the country's video game industry. Mobile game promotional service App2Top has published a survey (translated and first spotted by Dmitriy Byshonkov) that indicates up to 42.3 percent of the Russian game industry has either left the country or is making plans to leave in the next few months.
App2Top initiated the survey to ask developers if they were leaving the country after "the situation" that began on February 24 (the day that Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine). 85 percent of respondents were from Russia itself, while others were from Russian-speaking territories.
17.3 percent of respondents indicated they had already left Russia, bound for destinations like Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Georgia. 24.5 percent say they will be leaving in the next few months. 29 percent of this group said they have no plans to return.
57.7 percent of developers say they are staying in the country, but one third of these respondents said they "are planning to leave the country one day," per Byshonkov's translation.
Reviewing App2Top's results (using Google Translate, so there may be some language fuzziness), it appears that visual artists and marketers are the two most common types of employees to make plans to move. Programmers are the group identified as most likely to stay.
App2Top does note that many Russian game companies aren't headquartered in Russia anymore, having set up legal entities in other countries to facilitate international business. This means that in some cases, employees are following their employers across the border. Game industry employees who work closely with western companies like marketers or contractors appear to be the group most likely to depart.
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