84% of Russian developers create games at their own expense, according to a study by Innopolis
The University of Innopolis attempted to find out the current state of game developers in Russia. To do this, it surveyed a hundred representatives of the domestic game development industry.
«Bessmertny. Tales of Old Russia»
- The majority of Russian developers do not have a legal entity. 34% of those surveyed stated that they have either not registered one at all or are still in the process of registration. Slightly more — 36% of respondents — operate as individual entrepreneurs or have obtained self-employed status.
- Only 5% of Russian teams have over 100 employees. In 53% of companies, there are at most five people on staff, 25% have between five and 15 employees, and 14% have between 15 and 50 employees.
- Most of those surveyed opened their studio recently: 36% reported that they did so no more than three years ago, and 28% entered the market within the past year.
- 67% of those surveyed have a monthly turnover of less than 500,000 rubles. 9% earn between 500,000 and 1 million rubles per month, 10% earn 1-5 million rubles, 4% earn 5-10 million rubles, and another 10% earn over 10 million rubles.
- The most popular platform among Russian developers is the PC, with 77% of teams developing games for it. Many also work with mobile devices (45%) and browsers (29%). Games for Xbox and PlayStation are developed by 11% of teams. 8% each are involved in creating games for Nintendo Switch and Telegram. Note: in this and the following questions, developers could choose multiple options.
- Regarding game monetization, 52% of Russian developers use a premium model. The free-to-play model is also popular. For example, 41% of teams earn money from in-game purchases, and 35% from in-game advertising.
- The most popular methods for promoting games are posts in the game's official VK community (49%), word-of-mouth (40%), posts on the game's official Telegram account (38%), and partnerships with streamers and bloggers (38%).
- The respondents identified their main markets as Russia and other Russian-speaking countries (75%), North America (57%), Western Europe (54%), Eastern Europe (53%), and China (19%).
- One of the key problems in Russian game development is a lack of funding, with 61% of developers complaining about it. Many also noted difficulties with game promotion (48%), a shortage of qualified specialists (35%), and high competition (25%). Only 2% of respondents considered sanctions to be a problem.
- An overwhelming majority of surveyed developers fund their games entirely or partially from their own funds — such teams comprise 84%. Only 21% received private investments. Merely 10% have secured government support.
