Russia Allegedly Developing Its Own Unreal Engine 5 Competitor
As the gaming industry continues to proliferate through all manner of world crises and events, the importance of relatively simple and streamlined game production tools and development kits cannot be overstated. Unreal Engine, Unity, and a variety of other multitool engines have been propped up as the leaders in this particular niche, and developers worldwide have come to rely on them for game production.
As ubiquitous as Unreal Engine may be in this day and age, there's at least one global superpower that wishes to steer clear of its grasp: Russia. In what looks to be an attempt at diversifying its tech portfolio and setting itself apart from any software kits from the West, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development has seemingly become interested in the development of a domestic video game engine to compete with industry giants.
The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 Demo Is Being Delisted Soon
The need for a new, locally developed game engine has been described as «important and urgent,» though it comes with the obvious caveat of production cost. Namely, the Russian government would need to spend «billions of rubles over many years» to see the engine fully produced and ready for use, though it's worth remembering that funding may be an issue now that game piracy has been legalized in Russia, effectively invalidating the industry, to begin with. Anton Gorelkin, the vice-chairman of the Information Policy Committee, has even requested that Russia blocks access to Unreal Engine within its borders.
It's not particularly difficult to understand why the Russian government might be interested in setting itself apart from its Western competitors. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had decimated the country's economy to the point where
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