The resolution of the All-Russian Conference on Game Industry - ACGI

Moscow Region, SEZ “Dubna”, October, 27-29th, 2009

Today in Russia the interest to the Game Industry and Interactive Technologies (IT) area is growing. This fact is confirmed by constant increase of videogames and interactive educating programs releases, as well as an increase of online games’ users. According to “J'son and Partners Consulting” company research, the market volume of massively multiplayer online games reached 4,9 billion rbl. ($200 million) in Russia in 2008 year. It increased almost twice during the year. The company analysts forecast that total market volume of online games will grow up to 17.4 billion rbl. by the year 2012.

Meanwhile the resources for industry development are not indicated, the normative and legal regulation is absent. 

Today game industry is impaired in comparison with such industries as cinematography and television.  For example, the Federal Statute has been already produced that regulates the cinematographic industry. The title of the Statute is “On the State Support for Cinematography of the Russian Federation”. It has been passed by the State Duma on July 17th, 1996 and describes the measures of State support for cinematography and special taxes and customs regulation of activity for the cinematographic organizations. The Statute also suggests the special rates for financial and economic activity in that industry. In 2010 Russian government is planning to allocate 5.5 billion rubles from the state budget for cinematographic production and 0 rubles for domestic Game Industry development.

Measures of the state support are necessary for Game Industry and Interactive Technologies formation and development. The measures have to include the activities on legislative and legal support, funds attraction from federal, regional, local budgets and off-budget sources. Those funds should be included to the Strategies that are formed by federal jurisdiction and that reflect regions’ and industrial fields’ development in Russia.

As the first step to resolve the problem it could be the work on the legislative base improvement concerning the game industry and culture in whole. Particularly it could be considered the statute adoption “On the State Support of the Game Industry of the Russian Federation”.

The attendees of the All-Russian Conference on Game Industry have discussed the current situation in this sphere and came to the conclusion of the necessity of forming the main program document - Strategy for development of Game Industry and Interactive Technologies that has to include the proposals on:

• forming and development the legislative base in interactive technologies field and submitting appropriate suggestions to the State Duma;
• working out the bill “of State support of game industry of the Russian Federation”. This bill is needed for organization of the state support for the development and distribution of the games with patriotic loyalty. It is important to instill through the games the patriotic sentiment and a civil liability in the younger generation (partial financing of national videogames production);
• facultative certification of videogames, distributed on the territory of the Russian Federation according to the PEGI system (Pan-European Game Information, www.pegi.info). PEGI is unitary age rating system that was established to help European parents make informed decisions on buying computer games. The proposal to the State Duma also has to include the suggestions on the special measures development for implementation of the age rating system for all the products in the field of interactive technologies.
• joint development of qualitative educating products and videogames, national game projects as a result of collaboration between the State and business companies;
• development of the staff training systems for IT companies;
• attracting young specialists to the game industry and interactive technologies development;
• working out and implementation of different socially-oriented projects: educating games for physically challenged children, for example, games oriented on compensation reactions development, social games – simulators etc.
• engaging different authorities of the Russian Federation government in working out the balanced politics in the area of relations’ regulation between the market participants, professional and expert communities, public associations and state structures;
• preparation and substantiation of IT companies proposals for state structures to ensure the effective development of interactive technologies;
• representing the interests of IT companies on the basis of the dialogue establishment and forming partnership with state structures;
• encouraging the development of financial and other mechanisms on efficiency increase of Russian interactive technologies market;
• consolidation of innovative, technological, production potentials of IT companies while realization of major comprehensive projects in interactive technologies field;
• organization of forecasts development in interactive technologies field;
• appraisal and conclusions preparation concerning the companies’ activity in the interactive technologies field;
• researching current market state and identification of public opinion;
• representing IT companies on Russian and international markets;
• developing educating programs and plans, encouraging the professional trainings providing for the companies’ staff and public officers that are involved into the professional activity in the area of interactive technologies; encouraging qualification development for the mentioned staff;
• developing the sector of electronic and distant education in Russia;
• special measures forming for intellectual property protection and piracy control and prevention;

The Russian Association of Developers and Publisher of Game Industry and Interactive Technologies executes on non-commercial base innovative, scientific-technical and implementation activity; organizes program document forming and also is responsible for including marked in a program document points to the Association work plan on the year 2010.

Taking into account the importance of videogames and interactive technologies development, the Russian Association of Developers and Publisher of Game Industry and Interactive Technologies considers as necessary:

To appeal the heads of the Committee on Youth Affairs of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on behalf of business and scientific community with the request to redirect the petition:

1. to the Russian Federation Government on the following issues:
1.1. Possibility of working out and proposing to the State Duma the project of the federal law on making amendments to the Tax Code of Russia: VAT abolition for products realized on electronic carriers, as well as defining terms for "tax vacations" organized for videogames, software and other interactive software technologies developers.
1.2. Possibility of working out and proposing to the State Duma the project of the federal law on making amendments to the Tax Code of Russia: to be the UST (United social tax) payments rate the same as the rate established for IT-companies in special economic zones.

2. to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation on the following issues:
2.1. forming and accepting the state strategy of interactive technologies development;

3. to the Ministry for Economic Development of the Russian Federation on the following issues:
3.1. Taking into consideration the opportunity of federal goal-oriented program development on support of interactive technologies;
3.2. Taking into consideration the opportunity of financing allocation to the innovative software area;

4. to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on the following issues:
4.1. Forming and development of legislative base in interactive technologies area;
4.2. Working out a bill “about State support of Game Industry in Russian Federation” to organize the state support for development and distribution of the games with patriotic loyalty. It is important to instill through the games the patriotic sentiment and a civil liability in the younger generation (partial financing of national videogames production);

To appeal to the Committee on Youth Affairs of the State Duma with a request to direct this decision from the session to the Prime Minister of Russia V.V. Putin and Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly B.V. Gryzlov.
   

Please send your questions regarding  Russian Association of Developers and Publisher of Game Industry and Interactive Technologies to info@radit.ru

http://www.radit.ru

ACGI 2009

«The implementation of information technologies, availability of quality state services in this sector, expansion of broadband access potential – today these are the principal indicators of the development of information society in our country, which eventually are the issues of how the country is modern, competitive and comfortable for its citizens».

President of the Russian Federation
Dmitry Medvedev
 

Summary report of ACGI

Summary report of All-Russian Conference on Game Industry 2009

On October 27-29, 2009 in Congress centre of Special Economic Zone "Dubna" occurred the All-Russian Conference on Game Industry (ACGI) organized by Biart Studio LLC, the Federal Agency for Management of Special Economic Zones, State Academy of Innovations in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation within the project of the political party «EDINAYA ROSSIYA».

Epic Games company became the platinum sponsor of the event. Epic games is the world leader in the sphere of technologies production for game and multimedia industry, the developer of AAA class videogames. 

ACGI Gold sponsors:
- Сrytek GmbH – is one of the world’s leading independent development studios for interactive entertainment well-known for its own 3D-technology CryENGINE®.
- Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) - is the world leader of distribution, marketing and sales of PlayStation®3, PlayStation®2, PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) and PlayStation®Network software and hardware in 99 territories across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania.

Among the sponsors are also the following companies: Astrum Nival, Nevosoft, Azium.
Key event partners: Xbox 360 (Microsoft), NVIDIA, IEM Consulting.
General media partner – TV channel «Gameplay TV».

Over 350 people took part in the Conference: deputies of State Duma of the Russian Federation, representatives of profile government agencies, directors and specialists of western and Russian software development companies, the representatives of higher institutions and other educational establishments, heads from banking sector and financial companies, public organizations, expert communities, etc.

The priority themes for discussion were:  discussing and systematization of the proposals on creation and implementation of the modern interactive systems, discussing the perspectives of modern interactive technologies application for reducing recession consequences, perspectives assessment of technological gap overcoming by Russian companies in comparisons with the achievements of foreign competitors; discussing the opportunities to increase the investments’ inflow into the  area of innovations, interactive technologies and multimedia.

During three days of the Conference the attendees also considered and explored the wide range of the questions associated with the solving the issues concerning the interactive projects development, creating recommendations for legislative base improvement for preparing the Federal bill of activity in the field of interactive technologies and carrying this proposal to the Government and the State Duma. For example there were made the proposals for state authorities on the question of effective stimulating interactive technologies development for their wide implementation in Russia.

For Russian attendees of the Conference the particular interest was generated by presentations of the western colleagues whose achievements in game industry and multimedia have been widely recognized worldwide. At the Conference were speeches in which representatives from Europe and America spoke about the peculiarities of doing business in their countries, as well as shared experience of interaction with their government.

Reviews of foreign visitors about Conference ACGI.

“It was a pleasure for me to be a speaker at the ACGI.  I was deeply touched by the warmth, sincerity and open heartedness of the Russian people.  The quality of participants and the presentations made was exceptionally high. The conference provided a very valuable opportunity to get an excellent insight into the Russian  Video Games Industry and to get to know so many different Russian firms, people and their capability.
I also enjoyed the opportunity to interact with fellow participants and speakers during the social events organized on both evenings.  The first evening was very special for me as it was an intimate gathering over a traditional Russian dinner that enabled me to get a wonderful and intimate insight into the Russian culture. 
I take back with me wonderful impressions about Russia and its people.  This conference will prove to be a catalyst in familiarizing the global industry with the capability of Russian firms and the potential of the Russian marketplace”.

Gagan Ahluwalia
President & CEO | GlobalStep LLC

“ACGI gave me a very usefully and good insight view as well as a lot of information about the status quo of the Russian games industry. It is impressive to see that there are a lot of independent game developers which are very active to develop an independent game developers association and which are very active in the communication with the government. The conference was very well organized and personally for me was the first days very informative to understand the dialogue with the government ant the upcoming plans”.

Frank Sliwka
Vice President European Business Development and
Event Director GDC Europe
Think Services, a Division of United Business Media LLC
 

"I very much enjoyed the trip and hope to return in the future. Having taken a year of Russian history in college, I was delighted by the opportunity to visit Russia and see the sites in Moscow. The cathedrals and museums of the Kremlin, St. Basil's, Pushkin Museum, and Tretyakov Gallery were all beautiful. Next year I'd like to see more Russian game developers attend, as well as more Westerners, but overall it was a good experience and I'd love to return!"

Tracy Spaight
Executive Director of Publishing K2 Network

In addition leading international companies demonstrated their experience in the form of technical seminars and sessions. 

Specialists from Head office of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe company (London) provided for the Conference two technical sessions. The first session was open for everyone. There the SCEE specialists were talking about the current state and opportunities of company console products. The second session was for official developers only: there were covered technical aspects for games development on PSP and PS3; specialists also opened the secrets and shared tricks that allow finding and using more opportunities for development of modern qualitative high-technology games. 

For the Conference audience it was also very interesting to listen to the presentation of Alan Willard - Senior Level Designer / Senior Technical Artist at Epic Games. He spoke about the unique features of work with level editor on Unreal Engine 3. Alan also told in details about Unreal Engine tools set that provide designers with the possibility to edit all data in the game and view the results immediately.

The representatives of Crytek during their session were talking about the render and work with level editor in CryENGINE®3. Experts showed how in real time mode it is possible to see the level changes simultaneously on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms.

The summary of the Conference was the resolution reflected the main topics of the event. The resolution contains the proposals regarding priority directions and forms of collaboration between the representatives of multimedia, game industry and government. 

As a conference summary it was also made a decision to establish the new professional union – The Russian Association for Interactive Technologies Development.

Highlights of Association work:

• Forming an expert community on the main directions of the game industry;
• Representation of developers and publishers interests to the state authorities. The advancement of the bills;
• Promotion of the Russian interactive products to international markets;
• Creating the specialized Russian exhibition booths and halls within the international thematic events;
• Organizing participation of Association’ members in the state tenders and competitions. Submission of the applications for projects promotion through the appropriate structures;
• Following up the work on implementation of innovative interactive educating programs for different establishments.
• Organization of the educational programs for professional skills improvement in the area of game industry.
  

Carrying out the All-Russian Conference on Game Industry - ACGI - is planned on an annual basis. The next Conference will be held in Moscow. Follow up the future updates and the announcements on the web-site  www.acogi.ru .

The Conference organizing committee would like to thank all the attendees, sponsors, partners and media partners for active participation and would like to invite for further constructive dialogue on the work and development of Russian Association of Developers and Publisher of Game Industry and Interactive Technologies . For all the questions regarding the Association please contact via email info@radit.ru

http://www.radit.ru

More detailed information about the Conference: www.acogi.org
Linkedin - http://events.linkedin.com/ACGI-All-Russian-Conference-Game/pub/108533

Contacts:
Anastasia Barkhatova
E-mail: anastasiya@biart.ru
Phone: +7 (499) 615 86 82
www.biart.ru
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/esmik