Details Emerge on Putin’s ‘Sovereign’ Gaming Consoles: One Featuring a Local Elbrus CPU and Another a Chinese Clone — Russian Government Acknowledges Inability to Rival PS5 or Xbox

In the realm of sovereign computing, there’s often a dilemma: either it runs into resource constraints, or it ends up resembling a cheap imitation, losing its essence entirely. After President Putin pushed for a domestically-developed Russian game console earlier this year, the approach taken by the industry seems to be tackling this challenge on two fronts. Firstly, they’re creating a console utilizing the Elbrus processor, which Habr.com mentions has roots in heavy-duty, critical workloads thanks to its Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) microarchitecture. The other path, as per RBC’s insights, involves establishing a cloud gaming service that, while banking on affordable consumer hardware, is still branded as sovereign.

This new Russian console is being constructed around the Elbrus processor. Despite its high aspirations, when it comes to performance, the benchmarks for Elbrus have so far been underwhelming. It’s safe to say it doesn’t quite match up with mainstream consoles like the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S. This performance gap is why Russian policymakers are pushing for innovation to get around these limitations.

Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, remarked, “I expect my colleagues to take on this challenge with a high level of commitment, aiming to spearhead something genuinely innovative. It’s clear that our current Elbrus processors fall short compared to the likes of the PS5 and Xbox, and thus our solution needs to be outside the box.”

To tackle this, the strategy could either involve simplifying the games to a level that Elbrus CPUs can manage—though this might deter Russian gamers who have tasted global gaming excellence—or leveraging cloud computing, which would necessitate impeccable, low-latency internet connections for a smooth experience.

Gorelkin further stressed that the console should transcend being just a platform for older game ports; it should also work to elevate Russian video games on the global stage.

Switching gears to cloud gaming, MTS, a key player in Russian telecommunications, is launching its own gaming console initiative. Known as the MTS Fog Play platform, this project doesn’t shy away from its cloud-based nature. The hardware is modest, paired with a controller reminiscent of those from Xbox, and is offered at an attractive price point of approximately $50. Clearly, at that price, a standalone console isn’t expected to run even basic Android games. Instead, it will depend on the MTS Fog Play service, facilitating both remote and rental gaming options—so customers with high-end PCs can rent games while making use of their existing devices.

Though neither of these consoles is available to consumers yet, we’ll be eagerly watching for their debut and subsequent performance evaluations.