Dev kits, FSB, and bureaucracy: why Russian games rarely appear on consoles

Games from Russian and generally Russian-speaking teams rarely make it to consoles. We discussed why this is the case with Fair Games, Sobaka Studio, Odd Meter, DANGEN Entertainment, and many others.

In early June, developers from Sobaka Studio shared statistics: their latest game, Kiborg, sold over 100,000 copies. Moreover, half of the sales were on consoles.

Western blockbusters and indies often have similar statistics: Hogwarts Legacy's majority of sales are on consoles, and for the cult platformer Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove it’s almost 75%. This does not mean that every game will inevitably succeed on PlayStation or Switch, as there are plenty of examples of failures too. However, in some cases, consoles significantly boost sales and even become the primary platform.

Russian teams, meanwhile, don't always have the opportunity to release games on consoles. And it's not just because porting is a challenging task.

Adventures with Dev Kits