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[IbizaPocholo]

Russia Allegedly Developing Its Own Unreal Engine 5 Competitor

The Russian Ministry of Digital Development is allegedly interested in the development of a state-sanctioned game engine to rival Unreal Engine 5.

gamerant.com

As ubiquitous as Unreal Engine may be in this day and age, there's at least one global superpower that wishes to steer clear of its grasp: Russia. In what looks to be an attempt at diversifying its tech portfolio and setting itself apart from any software kits from the West, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development has seemingly become interested in the development of a domestic video game engine to compete with industry giants.

The need for a new, locally developed game engine has been described as "important and urgent," though it comes with the obvious caveat of production cost. Namely, the Russian government would need to spend "billions of rubles over many years" to see the engine fully produced and ready for use, though it's worth remembering that funding may be an issue now that game piracy has been legalized in Russia, effectively invalidating the industry, to begin with. Anton Gorelkin, the vice-chairman of the Information Policy Committee, has even requested that Russia blocks access to Unreal Engine within its borders.

It's not particularly difficult to understand why the Russian government might be interested in setting itself apart from its Western competitors. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had decimated the country's economy to the point where Roblox currency was worth more than the Ruble. If the sources reporting on this matter are correct, then it stands to reason that the Russian Ministry of Digital Development has grown suspicious of the domestic developers' reliance on Western software, and would take steps to reduce it.

Though Epic Games blocked its commerce with Russia early on, the company deliberately left open access to its toolkits and products. This was to facilitate an open line of dialogue for as long as possible, which may well have been one of the reasons why Gorelkin would be interested in blacklisting Epic and its services. Russian game developers may also be concerned that they will lose access to game engines such as Unreal and Unity in due time, effectively leaving them behind as the global gaming industry marches on.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Good. Sanctions will be lifted at some point and competition is always welcome. Too many quasi monopolies in the gaming and hardware space.

 

[Wandering Leopard]

It might be because I'm drinking but this doesn't make any sense.

I bet it gets cancelled quietly and people forget they ever made this announcement

 

[PuffyCan]

Good, more money for this corrupt country to take away from the war. I expect they'll never develop anything and the money will dissapear.

 

[PooBone]

This oughta be interesting.

 

[ANDS]

Good. Sanctions will be lifted at some point and competition is always welcome. Too many quasi monopolies in the gaming and hardware space.

This really isn't about "competition" though.

 

[Banjo64]

Unrealski Engine V

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

This really isn't about "competition" though.

It will be, when whatever Russian company developing the tech starts selling it to the world?

 

[winjer]

Russia, always over-promising. Always under-delivering.

 

[Kenpachii]

First client will be bethesda for the next skyrim.

 

[Dream-Knife]

The ruble has been that low since 2014. It's currently 0.017, and it was at the same level in March of 2015. Since march 2022 it has gone up from 0.015. It was 0.042 in 2008 though.

A 2022 USD is worth 0.86 USD in 2019, so perhaps that's why.

 

[SpokkX]

So they will just crack the unreal dev tools and make a branch of the engine called Unkrazky engine?

 

[Timberwolf25]

Great...so more ways for Russian hackers to get in?

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[01011001]

Designed for next generation Russian technology!

 

[RoadHazard]

Sanctions will be lifted at some point and competition is always welcome.

Probably not in our lifetime. Certainly not while Putin is still in power, and there are more people like him ready to take over once he drops dead.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Hendrick's]

"Developing"

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Nothing but posturing.

The Kremlin can go f*ck itself. They've stolen everything they own from the Russian people and are soaked in the blood of innocents.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

It will be, when whatever Russian company developing the tech starts selling it to the world?

No company outside of Russia would even contemplate using a Russian developed game engine. I highly doubt they will even be successful in getting one out in the first place.

 

[El Muerto]

Those Russians are about to get 3d remakes of the games their parents played during to Soviet era when American games weren't welcome.

 

[RoboFu]

DepressinglyReal Engine

 

[RaySoft]

Russia has far more importaint matters to attend to than copying a gameengine. Guys pls...

 

[RaySoft]

Edit: Russia has far more importaint matters to attend to than copying a gameengine...

Mods: Sry, I messed up somehow. pls delete above post

 

[Pelta88]

I can't support anything they do until they stop the senseless invasion of Ukraine.

 

[The Pleasure]

Designed for next generation Russian technology!

Women love it when i whip out the Dendy.

 

[Skifi28]

Does it run on those 30mhz cpus they're supposedly limited at importing?

 

[SmokedMeat]

Their new Tank game’s coming along. Get to the fueling station while avoiding farmers.

 

[El Pistolero]

Introducing Untrue, the real Unreal competitor.

 

[NoLootBoxDev]

I got a few names:

Comrade Engine
Unreal Putler
Ruzzian Nazi Engine

Fuck all of the Ruzzian military!!!

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Great...so more ways for Russian hackers to get in?

Get into 12 y old Jimmys fortnite RGB tower? I bet the Russians can't wait to download his porn collection.

 

[lh032]

REAL ENGINE.

 

[sinnergy]

Good for them, they can sell it to Russians , I don’t buy games anymore from countries that tolerate genocide.

 

[Exede]

So this is quietly a VR training environment for Soldiers? Fuck this war. I would not buy a single game developed with this engine!

 

[Nico_D]

So they will just crack the unreal dev tools and make a branch of the engine called Unkrazky engine?

That is how they have usually done a lot of things. Shame because they have a lot of actual knowhow.

 

[March Climber]

There has never been a more fitting time for me to use this .gif

 

[Sintoid]

First game will be Grand Theft Everything - Kiev

 

[DevilHunterX0]

Western warmongers, Eastern warmongers. What's the difference?

 

[Nocturno999]

Western warmongers, Eastern warmongers. What's the difference?

One side watches CNN, the other RT.

 

[Black_Stride]

Good. Sanctions will be lifted at some point and competition is always welcome. Too many quasi monopolies in the gaming and hardware space.

HAHAHA.
You are expecting this game engine to actually "compete" with the current crop of engines?

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

HAHAHA.
You are expecting this game engine to actually "compete" with the current crop of engines?

Why not? Because never has anybody accomplished to put pressure on a market leader? Because Russian programmers are magically all dumber than American ones? Given a good effort a Russian company should be able to pull it off, it may take 10 to 20 years but they'll get there eventually.

 

[pqueue]

In Soviet Russia, game engine plays you!

 

[GymWolf]

I bet it is called special operation engine.

 

[Tams]

One side watches CNN, the other RT.

Never watched CNN in my life. And certainly not RT.

 

[Black_Stride]

Why not? Because never has anybody accomplished to put pressure on a market leader? Because Russian programmers are magically all dumber than American ones? Given a good effort a Russian company should be able to pull it off, it may take 10 to 20 years but they'll get there eventually.

How would this engine take on Unreal, Unity, Cry, Unigine in its first iteration with literally no community support?
Unigine is barely making a dent but its gaining ground due to community.
Unity will fall off but what got Unity so high is community support.
You really think any Universities are gonna say lets switch to Unrealsky Engine?
You really think any indies are looking to switch to an engine with no community support.

Mate this engine aint competing with nobody.

 

[Whitecrow]

Nothing will be developed. Game engines take a lot of effort time and knowledge.
Even if they manage to make something half decent, any engine already out there will wipe the floor with it. But Russia is not known for having smart people.

 

[nowhat]

The rumors say this new engine will also include blackjack. And hookers.

 

[kuncol02]

Because Russian programmers are magically all dumber than American ones

UE is made by developers from all around the world and by statistics it will have more smarter people working on it (they simply have bigger pool to chose from). It's also made by company with funding way exceeding whatever Russians can throw on their project (and that's not taking into account russian state corruption). Epic also has access to hardware and APIs information before it goes public, they also in some ways have control over what technologies will be included in future hardware and software (it was Epic who pushed MS to put 512mb of RAM into X360).
And what about 25 years of experience, existing codebase and tools they already have.
Even EA with all the funding they have cannot make game engine that is functional enough to be used in various types of games without being detrimental to development process and games quality.

 

[winjer]

Why not? Because never has anybody accomplished to put pressure on a market leader? Because Russian programmers are magically all dumber than American ones? Given a good effort a Russian company should be able to pull it off, it may take 10 to 20 years but they'll get there eventually.

It took decades of development to reach to where UE5 is.
And along the way, many competitors have fallen. Some for lack of technical expertise, some for lack of funds, some for internal politics.
For example, in the late 90s, early 2000´s the Quake 3 engine was putting a fight with UE. But today id game engines are only used in house.
Cry-engine was once a competitor. But it also lost the battle. Now almost no one uses it.
Frostbite was supposed to be the game engine for all EA games, but it was so difficult to work with, it caused problems to several games. Including as recent as BF 2042.
Red Engine, now has been abandoned in favor of UE5.
And the list of companies shifting to UE is just increasing.

Epic was selling games and licenses to it's engine for decades, which financed the development of more and more features. Not just graphics, but also interface, compilers, etc.
Unless this Russian company can get billions of support, for a couple of decades, they don't really stand much of a chance.

Then there is the work with companies like Sony, MS, AMD, nVidia, Intel, Apple, ARM. Each of these companies provide important information about how the hardware works. How the API and drivers work.
Without this close collaboration, it's a guessing job, until something works right.
Russia isolated in tech terms, won't be able to do much without support.

We must also remember that Russia is banned from receiving high end hardware. Of course they'll get some through some black market channels. But it will be in limited numbers.
This will limit Russia's ability to create large studios.

 

[Swipeyowifelike]

I believe when I see.