Russia Admits Its Homegrown Consoles Can't Match the PS5 or Xbox Series

Earlier this year, Russia President Vladimir Putin called on the government to develop its own domestically produced gaming consoles with proprietary operating systems and cloud-based platforms. 'With Russia heavily sanctioned and looking to promote its own products, one of its in-development consoles is powered by the Elbrus processor,' notes TechSpot. However, the processor is 'designed primarily for domestic applications in critical infrastructure, defense, and other sensitive areas' and 'can't match high-end CPUs from Intel, AMD, and Arm.' From the report: The Russian government admits that this device isn't going to be on the same level as current-gen machines. 'I hope my colleagues will approach this task with full responsibility and come up with something truly groundbreaking,' said Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy. 'It is obvious to everyone: Elbrus processors are not yet at the level required to compete equally with the PS5 and Xbox, which means the solution must be unconventional.' Gorelkin said that Russian consoles aren't being designed only to play ports of hundreds of old, less-demanding games. He added that they should primarily serve the purpose of promoting and popularizing domestic video game products.

Another organization following Putin's instructions is Russian telecommunications firm MTS. Its console (above) will use the company's cloud-based gaming platform, called Fog Play. It allows owners of high-end PCs to rent out their computing power to those with less-powerful equipment, charging an hourly price. Those with more powerful PCs can access games on the service and use their own hardware to play them. MTS' device is expected to cost no more than $45 and come with an Xbox-like controller, suggesting it's unlikely to appeal to those who enjoy current-gen console games.

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