I hope none of you were counting on playing all the exciting new games
that were going to be created using Russia's 'national game engine'.
The project was originally announced following sanctions placed on
Russia after it started the war in Ukraine. Video game engines
actually aren't on the restricted list, but a lot of tech companies
decided to cut their ties with Russia in protest.

So a "national video game engine was seen as 'important and urgent
task' because, yeah, when your country goes to war that's obviously a
priority, right? But now the Russian parliament decided it wasn't a
wise use of national funds.* I guess they figured paying for /real
tanks/ to replace their losses instead of video-game tanks was higher
priority.

The project isn't dead, since an unnamed investor has promised to keep
it alive, but that transforms it from a 'national engine' to 'just
another commercial engine that can be licensed to anyone who wants to
use it'... although I suppose that it will still be limited to Russian developers who can only sell to the Russian market, so good luck to
that investor recouping his expenses (more likely, it's just another
method to grift that's too common a part of the Russian system).

So it's a comical end to a comically pointless program in an otherwise
tragic situation. Maybe had Russia focused on game engines instead of
foreign aggression in the first place, the world might have been a
better for it. But instead we got unnecessary death and Russian
struggling software developers. So, yeah, the whole thing really isn't
that funny, but can you blame me for trying to get my smiles where I
can?



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* https://www.pcgamer.com/russian-government-collides-with-reality-rejects-plans-to-fund-a-national-game-engine/

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