Among the list of goods from the European Union that are prohibited from being exported to the Russian Federation, gaming consoles may also be included. This was reported by Kaja Kallas, the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy.
"We are indeed examining all types of items that help the Russian Federation conduct this war, in order to include them in the sanctions list. Even video game consoles, because apparently, they use them to operate drones," Kaja Kallas is quoted by Financial Times.
The publication notes that PlayStation and Xbox have made it onto the new sanctions list, which is set to be announced on February 22. Additionally, chemicals for the Russian military industry will be included, along with restrictions on the import of Russian liquefied gas.
At the same time, the reasons for including PlayStation and Xbox in the sanctions list seem quite strange. These consoles are unlikely to be directly necessary for operating drones. However, if we look "inside" these consoles, we find an AMD Zen 2 processor and a graphics card with 10.28 teraflops in PlayStation 5 and 12 teraflops in Xbox Series X. It's worth noting that they do not differ significantly in "superpower," as the latest top-tier graphics card, the RTX 5090, boasts 104.8 teraflops.
Thus, in terms of raw computing power, gaming consoles do not stand out significantly, although they are indeed designed to be maximally efficient in games optimized for consoles. From the perspective of Defense Express, it is currently difficult to assess why the Russian Federation truly needs PlayStation and Xbox in the realm of UAVs.
At the same time, there are gaming consoles that are actually used in drones. These are portable consoles like the Valve Steam Deck, which are essentially miniature handheld gaming consoles or computers with fairly adequate computing power for their size, quality gaming controllers, and screens.
Such gaming solutions are often seen in the hands of drone operators on the front lines. Moreover, this trend can even be observed in the developments of UAVs by Western manufacturers, for example, the Tytan anti-aircraft drone. Ultimately, the Valve Steam Deck operates on Linux, and besides this solution, there are also portable consoles from other manufacturers, such as the Asus ROG Ally, which runs on Windows.
Therefore, blocking the supply of such portable gaming consoles to the Russian Federation seems more logical, but if the Russians cannot easily obtain PlayStation and Xbox, it's unlikely that anyone in the civilized world will oppose it.