"Speculations that the new bill is needed for blocking are unfounded," said a member of the Duma working group on video games
Alexander Zhuravlev is the managing partner of the law firm "EBR" and a member of the working group at the Russian Ministry of Digital Development for video games. He spoke to the newspaper "Kommersant" about the nuances of the bill that regulates the gaming industry in Russia. Below are the key points from the interview.
- The Russian gaming industry had been regulated even before the creation of the bill "On the Development and Distribution of Video Games in the Russian Federation." As Zhuravlev pointed out, it is currently controlled by laws such as "On Personal Data," "On Information," and many others.
- Nevertheless, Zhuravlev asserts that games are a "means of conveying ideas." Thus, special regulation is necessary. Such regulation exists in other countries, and in some places, it is stricter than what is being proposed here.
- Banning games is not a panacea and does not help authorities achieve desired results. Instead, it leads to the emergence of a gray market.
- Only two games have been banned in Russia over the last 30 years. One of them was pornographic.
- Labeling helps players understand in advance whether they want to start a game with certain content. It is used in different forms worldwide. If Russian descriptors end up being the same as those in other countries, foreign gaming platforms will not have to implement anything new—they will have already complied with the bill's labeling requirements.
- There are no plans to introduce rental certificates for games in Russia. According to Zhuravlev, it is practically impossible to ensure that all games undergo expert review before being published in the country.
- The bill mentions the review of games, but in a different format. Zhuravlev believes it is planned to be conducted if a developer incorrectly assigns a label, and someone complains and requests a review of the game at their own expense.
- The review clause is one of the controversial points in the bill and needs refinement. It is currently unclear who should conduct the review, how long it will take, whether game sales will be halted during the review, what penalties gaming companies may face for violations, and whether this could lead to abuses, etc.
- The bill includes several terms, but they also need refinement. For example, the current text does not clarify how video games differ from other IT services, which needs to be established for tax benefits. At the same time, the term "in-game property" in the bill is redundant. First, its definition is composed as if these are ordinary goods, leading to legal conflicts. Second, introducing this term at the legislative level changes nothing—the practice of resolving disputes related to in-game items has long been established.
- According to Zhuravlev, many developers are concerned about the clause that mandates ensuring continuous user access to the game.
- "No one has canceled hacker attacks, equipment problems, etc. Furthermore, no developer will support a game for 50 years. Games, like any other product, have a lifecycle; some games die within a week, while others last for years. There also arises the question of what to do with games released before the law's enactment, which are no longer supported by publishers or developers but are still distributed. Regulation should not impose new obligations on the industry that are uncharacteristic of the market," Zhuravlev noted.
- Public Services is only one of the four methods of authorization proposed by the bill. If a company does not wish to include it, they can enable authorization via phone number, a unified biometric system, or any other secure information system.
- Authorities already have tools to block Steam and other foreign gaming platforms in Russia. However, this has not happened, and there are no plans to block them after the bill's adoption.