The government is discussing the idea of creating a fund to support developers of simulators to control “drones and similar equipment,” Kommersant found out.
According to the publication, the Ministry of Digital Development turned to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko with proposals to support the development of Russian video game developers, including stimulating the production of video game simulators in Russia. At the same time, it is proposed to allocate funds for the implementation of these projects through a separate fund.
A newspaper source in one of the Russian-speaking game studios said that last week several industry representatives were invited to meetings on the development of simulators for “one of the vice-premiers.” The Ministry of Digital Transformation declined to comment, and Chernyshenko’s office did not respond to a request.
As one of the Russian-speaking game studios told the publication, the development of a simulator game for controlling a drone or drone from a game joystick will not require large resources, but it will not work to acquire real drone control skills thanks to it. If the simulator is adapted for a specific control panel, then this is already a “long and expensive process”, but the resulting product in this case will not be a game, but “software for a narrow circle of consumers”.
Eagle Dynamics Studio CEO Ekaterina Perederko agreed that drone or UAV operator simulators are unlikely to be popular with ordinary consumers. Such projects can be commercially successful only with the development of an esports discipline, such as drone racing. Development of a simulator with realistic controls for one aircraft takes about three to five years, she stressed.