Rostelecom and Indie GO intend to invest 300 million rubles in indie developers
The company "Rostelecom," together with the game accelerator Indie GO, plans to establish a fund to support independent developers, reports the newspaper "Kommersant." It is called Indie GO Start.
The managing partner of the fund, Vladimir Varenik, told the newspaper that at the initial stage, Indie GO Start plans to invest up to 300 million rubles in developers. It is expected that by the end of the year, 15 indie teams will be able to receive the fund's support.
At least for the beginning, the fund will invest solely in console and PC games. According to Varenik, Indie GO Start is not yet ready to invest in mobile games due to their prohibitively high marketing costs.
It is reported that in return, Indie GO Start will take a share of the revenue from the games it supports. The size of the share will depend on what the allocated money was used for. "If the fund invests only in development, we receive back 50% of the project's revenue, if in promotion—around 30%," Varenik explained to "Kommersant."
Notably, "Rostelecom" has recently shown increased interest in the gaming industry. During the summer, it became known that the company is considering developing a Russian gaming console based on the "Aurora" operating system. Rostelecom sees its development as a promising business area.
