Russia is mocked over plans to launch its own ‘Putindo 64’ games console in a desperate attempt to shun western technology
In a desperate attempt to avoid Western technology, President Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a new Russian video game console.
Now, if a Russian chef admits it won’t be as good as the Xbox or the PS5, commentators have flocked to social media to mock the upcoming machine, calling it the ‘Putindo 64’.
On Reddit, someone posted: “The Putindo will become a wild collector’s item in a few decades.”
Another user posted “I only hyev tetris” in reference to the famous puzzle video game created in 1985 by Russian Alexey Pajitnov.
Another said: ‘what is going on with the Russian government, why are they trying to develop a console while they are fighting on the front.’
To date, Russia’s most memorable video game console was the Dendy, which was sold in Russia from 1992, although it was made in Taiwan with Chinese components.
Following heavy sanctions since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the top Xbox PS5 and Nintendo consoles are no longer imported into Russia.
This seems to have forced the country to come up with its own homegrown alternative.
Russian game console, which is being developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on behalf of President Vladimir Putin (photo)
The Dendy consoles, produced from late 1992, were manufactured in Taiwan using Chinese components on behalf of the Russian company Steepler
Anton Gorelkin, the Russian deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy for Russia, revealed details of the device in a message on Telegram.
He said the Russian gaming console, which is being developed on behalf of the president by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, is “gradually taking shape.”
“I hope that my colleagues will approach this task with full responsibility and come up with something truly groundbreaking,” he said, translated from Russian.
“This platform should primarily serve the objectives of promoting and popularizing domestic video game products, and expanding its audience beyond PC and mobile gaming.”
Gorelkin said the console will be based on the Elbrus computer processor, which is made by the Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies (MCST), while using “other Russian-made electronic components.”
However, in its current form, Elbrus is no match for the Zen 2 from the American company AMD, which powers the best Western consoles.
“It is clear to everyone: Elbrus processors are not yet at the level necessary to compete equally with the PS5 and Xbox, which means that the solution must be unconventional,” Gorelkin added.
Elbrus is mainly intended for domestic applications in critical infrastructure, defense and ‘other sensitive areas’, TechSpot reports.
Following heavy sanctions since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the top Xbox PS5 and Nintendo consoles are no longer imported into Russia (file photo)
‘From Russia with pleasure’: Pajitnov developed the very first version of Tetris on an Electronika 60. Tetris was published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and later the Game Boy
In addition to the Elbrus-powered console, Russian telecommunications company MTS is also working on a small, stick-like gadget that users can connect to their TVs.
The stick came with an Xbox-style controller for a price of no more than $45 (£36) and could stream games from the cloud, TechSpot reports.
It is already known that Putin has pushed the creation of a domestically made console, although Gorelkin has provided most of the details about its progress.
Last year, government called for Russia to produce ‘stationary and portable gaming consoles’, plus software and a cloud system for delivering games to customers.
Putin carried out the order as top video game makers including Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo halted sales to Russia following Ukraine’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has one of the largest video game player bases in the world and was the first to recognize competitive video game playing as a sport in 2001.
Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov is best known for creating Tetris in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Center in Moscow.
Russian brand Elektronika released clones of Nintendo’s Game & Watch consoles in the 1980s, predating the SNES and Nintendo 64 in the 1990s.
Russian telecommunications company MTS is also working on a small, stick-like gadget that users can plug into their TVs (pictured)
Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov is best known for creating Tetris in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Center in Moscow
It was Dendy, released on the Russian market in 1992, that once brought the country so close to a successful video game console, even though it is actually an Asian creation.
Dendy – manufactured in Taiwan using Chinese components – went on to sell 6 million units in Russia before being discontinued in 1998.
It is unclear when the new console will appear on the Russian market, but Kommersant newspaper reports that this could take ten years.
“Market participants say there is no competency to produce their own PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and that building such a system from scratch would take up to a decade,” it said last year.