"With our support, 16 game projects were released over the year," said Andrey Voronkov from IRI about the results of 2024

Continuing to sum up the results of 2024 with gaming (or gaming industry-related) teams and experts. Next up is an interview with Andrey Voronkov, Deputy Director of the Internet Development Institute (IDI).

What kind of year was it for the organization? What have you accomplished, and what achievements would you like to highlight?

In 2024, with the support of IDI, there was a significant release of gaming projects for the first time—more than 16. This is the main result of our efforts to support the industry, which we initiated in 2022-2023. This included launching projects such as "Trouble," "Sparta 2035," "Frontline," "SSR: Enemy from the Future," "Petya and the Wolf: The Case of the Adventure Artifact," and "Museum Mysteries."

However, it's not just about quantity; it’s crucial that these products are in demand by the audience, receive high ratings from players in app stores, and gain recognition from industry professionals. This is evidenced by recent awards at industrial ceremonies like the Red Game Awards and "Our Game Industry."

The number of downloads of IDI gaming projects is nearing 7 million, not including web versions available for some projects.

Main conclusions:

• Domestic gamers have no bias against local projects; they are in demand by the audience;
• Game studios no longer fear IDI; they see that it is genuinely possible to receive funding and implement a project with us;
• The experience of supporting the industry is recognized as successful, and it will be continued. In 2025, we plan to allocate up to 2 billion rubles, depending on the quality and number of project submissions;
• Supporting studios strengthens their human resources, and gradually, the market will be enriched with talent. The development of the market also serves as a stimulus for the return of those who have left Russia.

Overall, Russian games are here to stay!

“Frontline”

How has the Russian gaming market changed this year? Were there changes in the domestic game development that were clearly felt this year?

This year, the domestic gaming market has come alive; we see this from both applications to our competitions and the industry in general.

The number of gaming projects submitted to our contests is growing. At the beginning of 2024, the national content contest received 96 submissions in the GAMES/SOFTWARE category, and now a similar selection received 123 submissions. Of course, we need to assess the quality of these submissions. Ahead lies validation for compliance with contest requirements, which will filter out some projects, followed by expert evaluation. This process takes several months. One thing we can say for sure now—Russian studios have become much more ambitious in terms of games!

Regarding the industry, the market revitalization is evident from business activity and major industry events that took place this year, such as “RED EXPO," “Igroprom," “Khomyakon,” and others. In my opinion, this is a marker of market revitalization and even to some extent normalcy.

“SSR: Enemy from the Future”

What trends do you expect to emerge in the Russian gaming industry next year?

We anticipate the trend of strengthening human resources will continue. Existing and new accelerators are actively developing (VK Play indie, “Start the Game,” “Game Factory,” the future video game and animation cluster in Skolkovo, and others). We expect investment activity to grow, with more people willing to invest in games, which in turn will lead to an increase in the number of small and medium-sized teams. However, these teams will not dissolve after a single project but rather have long-term plans. This will allow our gaming industry to grow in ambition. Additionally, we expect more announcements about the start of development of large-budget projects at the AAA level.

“Petya and the Wolf: The Case of the Adventure Artifact”

What are the organization's plans for next year?

Firstly, we will be reviewing the results of the national content creation contest, for which the application period ended on December 25. Based on the results, we plan to launch another batch of the best gaming concepts.

We also plan to release a part of the projects with a scheduled 2025 release that are currently in development.

Moreover, we will continue to work on cross-media projects where the release of a game coincides with a series premiere or other content. For example, last year, thanks to agreements with "Soyuzmultfilm," the game "Petya and the Wolf: The Case of the Adventure Artifact" was released on gaming platforms simultaneously with the start of the fourth season of the franchise on Okko and “Kinopoisk.”

We are currently working on another major gaming project that was selected in the 2024 contest, and we have already identified a partner planning a large-scale series creation. For now, we have to keep it a secret, but we will announce it this year.

At the current stage, cross-media projects are more of a prospective exploration for us than an experiment. But we see the potential in this direction and believe that the implementation of each such project is another step in the development of the domestic media industry.