Putin's Gaming Dreams Crushed? Russian Consoles Can't Compete With PS5, Xbox

A little less than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to develop gaming consoles, the officials involved in the process have admitted that their devices will not be able to rival the likes of PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo, according to a report in Techspot. One of the devices is powered by Russia's own Elbrus processor but is not very powerful while the other one appears to be a Fire Stick knockoff that can stream games from the cloud but costs $45.

"I hope my colleagues will approach this task with full responsibility and come up with something truly groundbreaking," Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy for Russia wrote on Telegram.

"Elbrus processors are not yet at the stage of development to ensure equal competition with the PS5 and Xbox, which means that the solution must be non-standard," he added.

Mr Gorelkin pointed out that the Russian consoles were not being developed so that old games could simply be ported and played. Instead, he wanted the new consoles to promote and popularise domestic video game products and industry.

Internet reacts

Reacting to Moscow's attempt to compete with the gaming giants, social media users expressed surprise as well as poked fun at Mr Putin.

"I do remember hearing Russia saying they were going to make their own console. I didn't actually expect them to follow through," said one user, while another joked: "The Putindo is gonna be a wild collectors item in a few decades."

A third commented: "It's even funnier when you realise it wasn't a Russian tech company saying "We can totally do that," but rather Putin giving a government order to develop a Russian game console."

Also Read | 7 Games You Should Play First On PS5

Putin orders development

In March last year, following a meeting on the socio-economic development of the Kaliningrad region, Mr Putin issued the diktat of devising the consoles in addition to a "special operating system and a cloud system for delivering games and programs to users", as per a report in RT.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin had been designated as the person to oversee the completion of the task with the deadline set at June 15, 2024.

The Russian president was forced to order the development as major video game makers, including Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, halted official sales to Russia, following the country's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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Meghan Markle Returns To Instagram After 5-Year Hiatus. See First Post

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, has returned to Instagram after nearly five years. The first post on her new account is a video in which she is seen running on a beach, before stopping to write '2025' in the sand.

According to ABC News, the video was filmed by her husband Prince Harry on a public beach near their house in Montecito, California. The couple lives there with their two children Archie and Lilibet.

While Ms Markle has disabled comments on the post, it has received likes from celebrities such as Serena Williams, Chrissy Teigen and Tan France.

Markle's new Instagram account goes by the handle of @meghan. Her return to the social media platform under her own name comes roughly five years after the royal couple had shut down their @sussexroyal account on Instagram. This came after they stepped down from their senior roles in the British royal family.

The account's launch comes at a time when rumours are rife about the couple's separation. Prince Harry addressed the rumours, saying, "Apparently we've bought or moved houses 10, 12 times. We've apparently divorced maybe 10, 12 times as well. So it's just like, what?"

Last year, Ms Markle announced the launch of her brand American Riviera Orchard, which features a line of preserves and homeware. Its Instagram account was launched early last year, but the last post was from March 2024.

Before her wedding in 2018, Ms Markle had millions following her on the social media platform. When the couple launched their @sussexroyal account in 2019, it quickly broke the world record for the fastest to get one million followers, according to Guinness World Records.

Before getting married to Harry, the Suits actor was active on Instagram and used to share images of her home, dogs and travel.

While the couple keep their live private, a source told the couple Ms Markle terrifies her staff. "Everyone's terrified of Meghan... She belittles people, she doesn't take advice" a source close to the couple told The Hollywood Reporter.

Another insider told the media outlet that Markle "marches around like a dictator in high heels," adding that she has reduced grown men to tears.

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Diljit Dosanjh Faces Legal Action Over Alcohol Songs After Ludhiana Concert

Singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh's highly anticipated New Year's Eve concert in Ludhiana was marred by legal controversy following a complaint filed by Punditrao Dharenavar, an assistant professor from Chandigarh.

The complaint prompted the Deputy Director of the Women and Child Department, Government of Punjab, to issue a formal notice to Ludhiana's District Commissioner, urging them to prevent the singer from performing certain songs during his live show on December 31, 2024.

The notice, which was addressed to the local authorities in Ludhiana, specifically calls for a ban on songs that have been accused of promoting alcohol, such as 'Patiala Pegg', '5 Tara Theke', and 'Case (Jeeb Vicho Feem Labbiya)', even if modified with altered lyrics.

The complaint references prior warnings issued to Diljit Dosanjh by various commissions, where he was advised against performing these controversial tracks.

Despite these advisories, the singer has allegedly continued to perform them with slight alterations to the lyrics.

Panditrao Dharenavar, who filed the complaint, expressed strong concerns over the impact of such songs, particularly on young audiences, especially when underage children are in the audience.

Further complicating the situation, Dharenavar cited a ruling from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which in 2019 directed the police to ensure that no songs promoting alcohol, drugs, or violence are played at public events, including live concerts.

According to the court's decision, songs that glorify substances like alcohol or drugs have a detrimental impact on impressionable children.

Panditrao has also made it clear that he is prepared to escalate the matter to the Punjab and Haryana High Court if the concert proceeds with these tracks.

He further criticized Dosanjh for performing such songs while wearing a pagadi, a traditional headgear that he believes should not be associated with promoting negative values.

The Ludhiana concert, which was added as a last-minute stop on Dosanjh's Dil-Luminati India Tour, marked the grand finale of his three-month nationwide performance schedule.

Initially, the tour was set to conclude in Guwahati, but the Ludhiana show was announced on December 23 and sold out within minutes of ticket sales opening.

In the days leading up to the Ludhiana performance, Diljit Dosanjh had already faced scrutiny in other cities for similar reasons.

During his concert in Hyderabad in November, he received a legal notice from the Telangana government, which cited a complaint about his performance of alcohol and violence-promoting songs.

Additionally, during his Indore show, the singer addressed the issue of black market ticket sales, defending himself against accusations that his tickets were being resold for inflated prices.

The controversy surrounding Diljit Dosanjh's song lyrics isn't new. Earlier in the year, the singer made headlines for his comments on alcohol in his music.

During a performance in Ahmedabad, he promised that he would cease making songs about alcohol if the Indian government enacted a nationwide ban on liquor. "If all the states declare themselves as dry states, I promise I won't sing about alcohol ever again," Dosanjh stated.

Despite these ongoing legal challenges, Dosanjh's Dil-Luminati tour has been a major success, with tickets selling out quickly at every stop.

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Tintin, Popeye, Hemingway: US Copyrights Expiring In 2025

From "A Farewell to Arms" to the cartoon character Popeye the Sailor, thousands of artistic works will enter the public domain in the United States on Wednesday. 

US copyright law expires after 95 years for books, films and other works of art, while sound recordings from 1924 will also be copyright-free.

By entering the public domain, the pieces can be copied, shared, reproduced or adapted by anyone without paying the rights owner.

This year's crop includes internationally recognized figures such as the comic character Tintin, who made his debut in a Belgian newspaper in 1929, and Popeye the Sailor, created by cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar. 

Every December, the Center for the Study of the Public Domain publishes a list of the cultural works that lose their copyright in the new year.

The center, part of the Duke University School of Law in the southeastern US state of North Carolina, makes the list available on its website for anyone to peruse.

"In past years we have celebrated an exciting cast of public domain characters: the original Mickey Mouse and Winnie-the-Pooh, and the final iterations of Sherlock Holmes from Arthur Conan Doyle's stories," center director Jennifer Jenkins wrote on its website.

"In 2025 copyright expires over more aspects of Mickey from his 1929 incarnations, along with the initial versions of Popeye and Tintin."

Among the literary works entering the US public domain on January 1 are the novels "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner, "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway, "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf and the first English translation of "All Quiet on the Western Front" by the German author Erich Maria Remarque.

Films that will be in the public domain include "Blackmail," directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and "The Black Watch," the first sound film by Oscar-winning director John Ford.

Musical compositions published in 1929, such as "Bolero" by French composer Maurice Ravel and "An American in Paris" by George Gershwin, will lose their copyrights, though only recordings from 1924 or earlier will be in the public domain

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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