Shadayev: Ministry of Digital Development is drafting a law on preloading games on mobile platforms

MOSCOW, February 15 – RIA Novosti. The Ministry of Digital Development, together with the leaders of the IT industry, is preparing a bill that will allow games to be pre-loaded and paid on mobile platforms, including those that are not from the AppStore app store. Minister Maksut Shadayev at a meeting with journalists through the systems of companies that dominate the Russian market.

According to him, game development (development of computer games) is one of the most affected sectors of the IT industry. Shadayev added that it is difficult for domestic developers to develop in the face of limited payments. “It is clear that the main thing is demand. We understand that companies can develop in conditions of access to foreign markets, this is especially important for games. Here we have difficulties in payments,” said the head of the Ministry of Digital Development.

“The Ministry of Digital Development and industry leaders are preparing a major bill, in general, that will allow mobile platforms to provide the ability to preload games, including those that are not from the AppStore. Systems of our BigTech (dominant companies in information technology – ed.)” , – Shadayev explained.

He emphasized that the Ministry of Digital Development has also prepared a program to support Russian games and export them to China. “There is a large market out there, we understand that this can compensate for the withdrawal from the markets we had difficulty with,” the minister said.

In March 2022, payments in the Google Play Store and Apple Store were limited for Russians. This made it impossible to pay for games and in-app purchases through these app stores.

In May last year, the American Google introduced new sanctions against Russian application developers: the installation of new paid applications in the Google Play catalog was completely prohibited.