Russia's console project gets off to a slow start

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Russia's first own console is "gradually taking shape". It is certain that an Elbrus processor from the Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies (MCST, МЦСТ) will be used. When it comes to the operating system, there is a choice between the two Russian Linux distributions Aurora and Alt Linux.

This was revealed by Anton Vadimovich Gorelkin, a politician close to Putin, via his Telegram channel. As deputy head of the parliamentary committee for information policy, he is a member of the State Duma.

Slow home-grown

With their VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) architecture, Elbrus processors are exotic – and have so far been anything but fast. At a dedicated Elbrus partner conference in winter 2021, the previous eight-core processors were labeled as lame and unsuitable for everyday use. The computing units were said to be too slow, the clock frequencies too low and the caches too small.

Since then, the MCST is unlikely to have made much progress: chip contract manufacturers such as TSMC and Samsung have cut ties due to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. At best, Russian companies can fall back on Chinese production technology, which China itself needs.

Gorelkin admits: "The Elbrus processors are not yet so advanced that they can compete with the PS5 and Xbox, which means that the solution does not have to be standardized."

However, even unconventional solutions do not seem very promising if the console is to use exclusively Russian components as required. Above all, there is a lack of GPU technology to accelerate 3D graphics.

PC games will also not run on the console due to its exotic architecture. "This platform is primarily intended to promote and publicize domestic video game products and expand their audience beyond PC and mobile games," writes Gorelkin.

Cloud gaming ...

Meanwhile, the Russian MTC Group wants to make cloud gaming big in its own country. Fog Play is the name of its own service, which was launched in December 2024 with streaming sticks. The Fog Play stick is connected to an HDMI port like an Amazon Fire TV Stick and supports games in full HD resolution (1920 × 1080 pixels) at 60 frames per second (fps).

The hardware, including the brightly colored controller, costs 4990 rubles, the equivalent of just under 45 euros. In addition, each hour of play will cost 13 to 19 roubles, i.e. 11 to 17 cents. If you play for two hours a day, this would amount to around 7 to 10 euros per month.

... with Chinese hardware

However, Fog Play Stick uses completely Chinese components, including an Amlogic S905Y4 processor with four old ARM Cortex A53 cores and an Android TV operating system. The servers are said to be "Russian", but there are no details about the hardware.

The service advertises more than 10,000 available games. However, not all of them run smoothly: Gorelkin writes that the officially supported action role-playing game "Smuta" ("Смуту") is not playable at all.

"If it weren't for the lack of 'Smuta', I would give the MTC console a solid B," he summarizes.

(mma)