First of all a recent interview from 4 months ago. Youtube upload has been deleted so we are left with vk video.
https://vk.com/video-171868288_456243437
key takeaways:
>working with government is painful. You have a veteran and an official in the same room, veteran tells you how it went down, official tells you to remove “uncomfortable” moments. However, without those bad moments you’re left with a bland story that has no soul. It went to absurd levels when during development they were told not to show tank shooting in buildings, even if there are enemies inside because thats not how Russian forces operate
>once again confirmed the morale meme that if implemented will send devs to gulag because that would risk discriminating Russian forces
>Syrian warfare would NOT have been possible if they had asked for government sponsorship like they did with Front Edge. It was too indirect, following a story of some cop and Russian forces appeared only in the 3rd mission and only in the second half. He notes how nobody would play this and even recalls a streamer who started playing by saying “i know this is Russian propaganda but lets have a look” who ended up playing through all missions and DLCs
>Steam release is under a big question. On top of 30% commission, you have a local sales tax, terrible conversion rate and then you are under mercy of a company who operates in USA and in case of problems or delisting (like in the case of Syrian Warfare for a month), it has to be settled in court of Washington. They are hoping to go the way of Atomic Heart
>other conflicts involving Russia are not likely - if they will make a game based on Nagorno Karabkh conflict, nobody will buy it and they have no resources for other ones
>dev team expanded thanks to Front Edge - from 10 to 17 people