Showdown of associations. The conflict between RVI and APRIORI went public

The "Green Label" for video games, announced last week, has exposed clashes between young gaming associations currently operating in Russia, leading to open conflict and accusations.

The formal reason for the confrontation was the announcement of the so-called "Green Label for Video Games." It was presented last Thursday, May 30, by the Video Game Industry Development Organization (VGIDO), led by Vasily Ovchinnikov.

The initiative aims to introduce voluntary labeling of video games to "eliminate the negative context about video games for the general audience, helping to focus on the positive impact of video games on individuals and society."

The announcement caused outrage from another association — the Association of Professionals of the Game Operating and Development Industry (APRIORI), and Lesta Games, currently responsible in Russia for the development and operation of "World of Tanks" and "World of Warships."

The point is that APRIORI (at least VK Play, one of its founders) and Lesta have been working with the Ministry of Economy for the second year on an "experiment act on regulating the video gaming industry, which will address labeling issues."

"Lesta, like all responsible industry actors, has been working with the Ministry of Economy on labeling for two years. Since November last year, we have been meeting weekly as part of a working group to discuss labeling," said Gauhar Aldiyarova, head of the Moscow branch of Lesta Games, in the "Igrotochka" chat (all quotes here and below are taken from it).

"Essentially, we discussed our version of PEGI with our specifics. We believe that the Ministry of Economy's initiative will help protect the industry from other, more severe forms of gaming content control. And then VGIDO comes with its new green label — why?" wonders Aldiyarova.

Alexander Mikheev, head of APRIORI, believes the VGIDO's initiative is "an unfounded and pointless hype on a real problem." Moreover, he claimed that the announcement of the "Green Label for Video Games" harms the modern Russian gaming industry.

"There is a track for government regulation of the gaming industry. The balance constantly shifts from 'ban everything,' switch to pre-moderation and make it 'like in China,' to the position 'let everything live without any regulation at all.' Both extremes are destructive. The dialogue with the Ministry of Economy on the additional labeling initiative is precisely aimed at finding a balance between 'ban' and 'leave it alone,'" explains Mikheev.

According to him, industry representatives, during meetings with the Ministry of Economy, have agreed to introduce seven new "descriptors" that developers should start voluntarily applying to their products after their announcement.

"The goal of this process is to prove we are mature enough for self-regulation without additional state control," reveals Mikheev. Against this experimental backdrop, in his view, the VGIDO's initiative "does not protect the industry, does not help it, but rather causes confusion."

Due to the announcement of the new label, the previous track, as Aldiyarova writes, "is now under threat, and that's hours, days, months of our work."

Malik Khatajaev, owner of Lesta Games, expressed even more categorical views regarding the green label: "Officially speaking on behalf of Lesta Games: we do not support this initiative, we consider it extremely harmful for the industry and contrary to the long-standing joint work of all industry representatives with the Government Commission. This is a direct torpedoing of the agreement reached there, which VGIDO participated in but later 'as always.'"

What is meant by the words "as always" is clarified by Mikheev. According to him, VGIDO is acting similarly not for the first time: "History repeats itself with persistent consistency. During discussions, all participants from various associations and large businesses nod in agreement, indicating that everything is correct, we have agreed, and then Vasily from VGIDO releases another initiative that contradicts this."

According to Mikheev, over the last year, there have been about five cases where "the entire industry extinguished outbursts" caused, as far as the context of the comment can be understood, by the actions of Ovchinnikov and the VGIDO organization.

"Even that's not what's bad; what's bad is that in the eyes of our counterpart — the state — we look like children in a sandbox. The reaction to the sandbox is one — children need to be regulated. Everyone understands this — we, Lesta, and others, but Vasya has his own personal life and personal brand cultivation," laments Mikheev.

"That’s why personally for me, Vasily is now the most destructive element. I have said this personally, said to all VGIDO founders, now I am saying it publicly because I’m tired of putting out fires," Mikheev emphasizes.

Khatajaev, in turn, sees not only PR in VGIDO's actions and leadership. According to him, while Lesta Games is trying to do something "beneficial to the industry," VGIDO's long-term mission might be to create a controller with "industry-unfriendly outsiders," one that will "collect rents" and "hold the red button."

For this reason, he believes that the current situation with labeling concerns all participants of the Russian gaming market, including small indie studios, not just the companies working on it.

"There are those who are willing and push the industry forward, and then there are those who want to be by it and preferably on top," writes Khatajaev and calls VGIDO's labeling initiative "anti-state activity."

Lesta Games sees its role in the work with the Ministry of Economy as "regulating self-regulation": "we participate in a working group to prevent heavy-duty regulatory solutions and instead promote normal self-regulation."

This position is explained by Mikheev, according to whom there are two potential paths for the future development of the Russian gaming industry: either "pre-moderation and licensing for game publication, or voluntary labeling by developers themselves without commissions and other bureaucracy."

Vladimir Varenik, founder of the Indie GO community of independent game developers closely associated with VGIDO, expressed misunderstanding of the criticism towards the initiative: "I don't understand why they made a tragedy out of a simple proposal to voluntarily make stickers. Not just red ones, but also green ones."

According to his comment, he suggested the green label at one of the meetings in the Ministry of Economy, where, according to him, representatives from Lesta Games were also present, reflecting the positive aspects of projects they are applied to.

According to APRIORI's head Mikheev, there is actually nothing wrong with the green label. The issue is that during joint meetings, the decision was made to postpone its implementation until the labeling experiment laid out in the Ministry of Economy's bill was conducted.

"Everyone agreed it would be later. But then Vasya goes to the media and says, no, I will do as I want," reports Mikheev.

A different recollection of the positive labeling suggestion in the Ministry of Economy was expressed by Aldiyarova: "It was discussed as part of the general experiment. And we agreed that labels can be both positive and negative."

She says it was not about two specific labels. Such an initiative would unlikely please the Ministry of Economy.

Moreover, she expressed surprise that a proposal, which all parties discussed at a meeting with the state regulator, turned into a private initiative specifically of VGIDO.

In response, Varenik claimed the association proceeded to create and announce its labeling because, according to the Ministry of Economy, a positive label could not be introduced under federal law but could within the framework of an initiative.

Varenik also accused his interlocutors of "everyone kept silent" when a proposal for positive labeling was made. Nobody voiced criticism of this proposal.

"Vladimir, who kept silent? Were you even at the last meetings? A decision was made that everyone agrees and is ready to start the experiment. Why didn't you or Vasily stand up there and say: no, we will start our green experiment and first announce it in the media?" retorted Aldiyarova.

Further in the discussion, which was disjointed and not always consistent due to the format, an interesting detail emerges, requiring a small remark.

In December 2023, the Unified Regulator of Gambling (URoG) together with the Russian Boxing Federation developed the concept for a project regulating the Russian video game market. According to it, all gamer payments would need to go through a single center for accounting bet transfers, not through Steam, Epic Games Store, VK Play, Lesta Game Center, and other platforms. This center would not only collect fees from each transaction to support Russian developers but also distribute commissions to gaming stores. Selling games bypassing the URoG systems should be banned.

According to Khatajaev, it suggested that the URoG and the Boxing Federation would receive 2% of every transaction on the market.

The proposal was met with criticism not only from Russian gaming companies. As Kommersant reported: the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance, Roskomnadzor, and other agencies "are concerned that the URoG is trying to concentrate all authority in its hands, as well as conduct not only monitoring but full administration of financial flows."

Meanwhile, according to the Lesta Games owner, Ovchinnikov found the proposal by the "boxers" to allocate part of the proceeds from Russian game sales for VGIDO's activities "interesting."

After this, according to Aldiyarova, the company began stating that it now "does not trust Vasily."

"We tried to engage in dialogue with Vasily; he preferred URoG. He himself repented, said he was just misunderstood, but for us, it was a serious step against the industry," Alidyarova emphasized.

Varenik disagreed with the accusations. "You have incorrect information; Vasily defended the industry together with all of us," he said, also noting that the Russian Boxing Federation no longer has interest in the video game industry because "they got involved with 'Rolf,' which is larger than the entire industry. The matter is closed. Indeed, we even have a joint document in which VGIDO, represented by Vasily along with Lesta and VK, criticizes its initiative."

However, Khatajaev insists that the issue is not closed, while Aldiyarova maintains that Ovchinnikov told her himself that he "decided to talk to the URoG because, in his opinion, it would be beneficial."

Another brief remark. "Rolf" refers to one of the largest car dealerships in Russia, which was transferred to temporary management under the state by presidential decree in December 2023 and to state ownership by February 2024. In March of this year, Roman Antonov, a business partner of Umar Kremlev, a current member of the executive committee and former general secretary of the Russian Boxing Federation, who is also involved in the betting business, became the company's CEO.

Notably, from Varenik's comments, it’s clear that representatives from gaming companies held discussions with Kremlev on the URoG proposal: "We debated with Umar together. If Gauhar remembers, I personally explained to him that their initiatives would lead to blocking Steam and closing many indie developers."

Aside from Varenik, Haji Makhtiev, owner of gaming media "Kanobu," "Igromania," and gaming platform AG.ru, as well as one of VGIDO’s founders, defended Ovchinnikov and VGIDO in the discussion.

He said the discussion has been brewing and that VGIDO has plenty of mistakes. However, he immediately attacked Mikheev, calling his words a "personal jab" aimed at "removing Vasya." Meanwhile, Makhtiev noted that VGIDO is far more than just Ovchinnikov, as the association also includes trustees and a team.

If Ovchinnikov's actions are unanimously sanctioned — with all trustees and the team participating — it means VGIDO is entirely laying the foundations for dividing the industry, writes Khatajaev in response.

Varenik disagrees with such an interpretation: "On the contrary, we are for unification. We were the first in 2022 to say we need to survive together. We are not competitors to Lesta; we never tried to develop competing products, it's not interesting to us."

Svetlana Karacharova, PR Director of Lesta Games, promptly accused Varenik of inconsistency regarding these words: "What kind of unification is this if you first discuss one track for everyone and then it turns out to be VGIDO's track and your personal initiative?"

Mikheev also disagrees with Varenik: "I have always called for its [the industry’s] unification. Even a year ago, in multiple meetings with Vasily at the start of APRIORI's activities, I suggested at least consolidating positions, if not uniting in some format. My response was that Vasily's personal ambitions were paramount and that he didn’t consider such a scenario (...) In words, we shook hands; in action, Vasily then proceeded as he saw fit."

As an example, Mikheev cites VGIDO's announcement of its own industry development roadmap: "After both sides agreed to jointly work on a list of industry development initiatives that we, APRIORI, with Lesta, 1C, and other industry participants worked on for several months, our ideas were sent to Vasily. He didn’t respond, and a month later, the news came out that VGIDO had developed an industry development roadmap. Our document was taken as the basis. And there were many such stories."

He also notes that due to such situations, he is no longer willing to work in any capacity with Ovchinnikov, and if VGIDO shares his stance, then with the association as a whole.

In dialogue with Lesta representatives, Varenik offhandedly notes that the reason for the current conflict is political or public ambitions. According to him, precisely because of them, Lesta "is starting to burn out everything around."

And here in the chat, it becomes clear that there was a moment when VGIDO and APRIORI might have consolidated. According to Varenik, "the condition of unification was that we remove Vasily [from the leadership position] and appoint your director."

In response, VGIDO came back with a compromise — besides Ovchinnikov, they proposed several candidates to choose from.

"But none of the candidates you proposed suited you," writes Varenik and adds, "We are a collective organization and cannot transform into Lesta’s organization."

He believes that all the attacks on VGIDO started after this.

It becomes evident from further correspondence that Lesta would have been satisfied with two other founders of VGIDO — Slava Makarov, game designer for World of Tanks, and Maxim Nikolaev, founder of the group "Igrotochka." However, for various reasons, neither the first nor the second case led to full discussions of their candidacies (Makarov blames Lesta for communication failures).

Eventually, at some point, Makhtiev asked Aldiyarova to find more candidates. But they were not needed. "I listened, went searching for more. But you went and re-elected Vasya, and we were offered to head the supervisory board, to observe," writes the head of the Moscow branch of Lesta.

Later in the same chat, Ovchinnikov responded to some accusations. He began by stating that he does not recognize himself as the barrier preventing the associations from unifying into one organization. On the contrary, he writes that he has done much to not proliferate associations but bring them together.

Moreover, Ovchinnikov writes that he discussed creating a united association with Mikheev with him (Ovchinnikov) at its head: "You promised to consult with shareholders and discuss the structure and united association. You agreed in front of everyone, then disappeared. I repeatedly clarified your position on this; you stayed silent."

Ovchinnikov explains that the release of VGIDO's roadmap was held back for a month or two, waiting for Mikheev's return. Not waiting, VGIDO proceeded with its previously scheduled track.

Mikheev disagrees with this interpretation: "We agreed to work on the legal structure of the new story. The issue was on you. I returned with the founders’ position, who were waiting for specific proposals from you, which never followed."

Regarding the roadmap, Mikheev claims there was an agreement to work on a joint roadmap. He presented it. Instead of discussing it, Ovchinnikov released it on his behalf.

"This is my last discussion message. Because distorting facts, that’s truly sad and gloomy," concluded Mikheev.

An interesting fact. In his response to APRIORI, Ovchinnikov notes he previously gave Mikheev a positive recommendation to Vladimir Nikolsky, then COO of VK, to get him hired at VK. He also reveals that Mikheev was part of the VGIDO founders' chat for a long time.

Concerning the accusations from Lesta about labeling, Ovchinnikov parries with the assertion that all initiatives were "written into VGIDO's roadmap last year and could not have been news to many of those to whom I presented it well in advance, and now these same people are 'stirring things up.'"

On the topic of URoG, Ovchinnikov doesn't dwell, although his initial message in the chat concerning the accusations begins with the phrase, "I cannot comment on conspiracy, fantasies, mysticism, slogans, etc., but at most — I can jest."

One of the main outcomes of this overall discussion is Khatajaev's final statement that Lesta officially ceases cooperation at any levels with VGIDO.

"Nothing fatal happened; everyone will choose their own path, and as always, time will show where and whom the roads will lead. It’s good that clarity has come," concludes the owner of Lesta Games.

P.S.

Regarding the labels. In 2012, a law "On Protecting Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development" came into force in Russia. It introduced mandatory labeling of digital products, including games, by age categories. There are five categories: 0+, 6+, 12+, 16+, and 18+.