Putin’s ‘Sovereign’ Gaming Consoles Unveiled: One Featuring a Homegrown Elbrus CPU, the Other a Chinese Copy — Russian Government Concedes Inability to Rival PS5 or Xbox

The journey of Russia’s quest for a sovereign gaming console has taken a unique turn. It’s faced with either floundering due to insufficient resources or imitating existing designs, losing its originality. Earlier this year, President Putin directed the government to create a distinctly Russian game console, and now the tech industry in Russia is trying two different approaches. According to Habr.com, one plan involves designing a console around the homegrown Elbrus dual-core processor. Meanwhile, as reported by RBC, the other approach leans toward developing a cloud gaming service using affordable consumer hardware and branding it “sovereign.”

The Elbrus chip at the heart of the proposed console is built on a VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) architecture, initially intended for high-performance, critical tasks. Unfortunately, when it comes to gaming performance, Elbrus leaves much to be desired, performing poorly in benchmarks and deemed insufficient for most gaming needs.

It’s anticipated that this new console won’t match the performance of heavyweights like the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S. This gap in power is pushing Russian officials to urge developers to think outside the box. “I hope my colleagues will take on this responsibility seriously and create something truly innovative,” remarked Anton Gorelkin, the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy. He acknowledged the reality that Elbrus processors aren’t on par with their PS5 and Xbox counterparts, necessitating an inventive solution.

This inventive path might involve simplifying games to operate within Elbrus’s limitations, although such ‘simplified’ games might not attract Russian gamers who still enjoy access to top-tier international titles. Alternatively, the solution could be to implement cloud rendering and computing, a strategy that would require gamers to have excellent broadband connectivity to play smoothly.

Gorelkin also highlighted the importance of ensuring that this console should not just focus on recycling older games. Instead, it should aim to promote and showcase Russian-developed video games.

Shifting the focus to another initiative, MTS, a leading Russian telecom company, is developing its gaming console, which is more of a cloud-based gaming platform known as the MTS Fog Play. The setup is straightforward: low-end hardware paired with an Xbox-style controller for just about $50. Given this price point, it’s clear that rendering even basic Android games locally would be challenging, so MTS relies on its Fog Play cloud service. This service supports remote gameplay and game rentals, allowing owners of advanced PCs to play compatible games through the cloud while utilizing their existing hardware.

Neither console has hit the market yet, but once they do, we’ll be watching closely for performance reviews and benchmarks to see how they fare in the competitive landscape.