The Russian company SMP ESports plans to “start developing” football and hockey simulators within three years

The Russian company SMP ESports plans to “start developing” football and hockey simulators within three years

ShMD ESports (ShMD digital sport LLC), owned by Boris Rotenberg, intends to “start developing” football and hockey simulators within three years. “Kommersant” writes about this with reference to the general director of the company, Georgy Hnutov.

“Our main goal is to create a development team that will not be limited to specific sports, but will be able to create any games based on the domestic engine,” he said.

A Kommersant source familiar with the situation says that ShMD ESports’ investment in development at the first stage may amount to about 300 million rubles. The interlocutor of the publication, close to the project, added that in the future the company “intends to replace foreign sports simulators.” The most popular of them are FIFA and NHL developed by EA Sports.

The development of sports simulators, where teams and players are represented, involves the conclusion of license agreements with sports clubs. Abroad, Russian structures will clearly not be able to do this now, therefore, most likely, only domestic teams will be represented in the games, emphasized a source in a large distributor of games, admitting agreements with structures from “friendly countries”. He calls the development cost of 300 million rubles insufficient, noting that in the world “budgets for similar projects start at $5 million.”

Another structure of Rotenberg, ANO “SMP Racing”, develops a racing simulator. At the end of May, the company presented the simulator to the President of the Russian Federation at an exhibition in the “Zotiv” center.

In the spring, “SMP Racing” expressed interest in participating in the organization of the “Future Games” (a Russian e-sports tournament that will be held in Kazan for the first time in February 2024), and even then, as it turned out, there were other disciplines in the plans.

“The existing experience allows us to adapt the existing knowledge and infrastructure to organize and hold online championships in a number of disciplines: cyberfootball, cyberbasketball, virtual hockey,” said Boris Rotenberg. The businessman offered to “consider the possibility of appointing SMP Racing as a key partner in figital disciplines within the framework of the Future Games”.

In the summer at PMEF, “SMP Racing” and “Future Games” concluded a strategic partnership contract. “In addition to organizing e-sports championships as part of the Future Games, the company focuses on VK Play as a priority platform for the distribution of its games,” added Mr. Hnutov. VK Play said that any developer can post their project on their site.

Vasyl Ovchinnikov, CEO of the Video Game Industry Development Organization, says that if simulators are really developed, they have the potential to become sports equipment for the “Games of the Future.” “But in the future, the success of the project will turn out to be tied to this tournament: the “Games of the Future” will take off – there will be an audience, and if not, then the simulators may not find users.”

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