I see the logic. Gaming has traditionally driven significant technology improvements and that tech can easily be militarized. (Oh, not to mention that it has the potential to be a massive propaganda tool for teenagers.)
It might be too little too late though. While China may help Russia with chip development, they are still going to be years behind the curve. (Russia is only planning on 28nm tech by 2030. Improvements will come, but it’s not going to be fast.)
If they want to succeed, they actually need to push all of their cash into it and not let it get sucked away by corruption. Given that their wunderwaffe showing in Ukraine (T-14, BMP-T, SU-57, etc.) has been extremely poor, I doubt that any new silicone is on the horizon.
Russia is still feeling the effects of the cold war brain drain that hasn’t helped by their less than inviting prospects for the return of expensive, specialized talent. They will just wind up BEING chinese products, carefully and cleverly rebranded and channeled through government-approved “assembled in motherland” companies in Russia that chinese firms will only happen to have a majority stake in.
They will just wind up BEING chinese products, carefully and cleverly rebranded
Russia being Russia, it’s much cheaper to just change the definition of “domestic” and not give a shit about the rebranding bit. Also, with China being China, there is also a level of “rebranding” that happens with components unless strict QA processes are implemented by the buyers.
They never really recovered from the cold war and there was another mass exodus of brain power due to the Ukrainian war.
They are basically fucked unless they can stop their shit and start getting along with other countries. There are dozens of companies that would love to sell them stuff legally.
Gaming has traditionally driven significant technology improvements and that tech can easily be militarized.
Easy examples : the US army using Xbox 360 controllers for I think more than 1 decade now to control some things, and Ukrainians reportedly using the Steam deck to pilot drones
The logic with that is that kids grew up using console controllers. The learning curve was reduced as they didn’t need to learn “military grade” controls.
There are instances where PlayStations were used as clustered “super computers” too. That was an interesting time…
The real gain in this case is the development of their own silicon. Kids want new games, games cost money and companies use that money to develop better chips to run the newest games. Once that cycle repeats a few hundred times, you now have an infrastructure to build military ICs as a side gig.
Cant wait for Krokodil Simulator, Tropica: russia edition and Korsakov Killer 3
