One of Russia’s most talked-about projects, Atomic Heart, is moving toward a multi-format adaptation with plans to reach audiences between 2025 and 2029. Representatives from Kinopoisk and Plus Studio shared the news during the reveal of their new season.
Roman Kantor, known for Epidemic and The Master and Margarita, will write the screenplay. The story unfolds in a retrofuturistic USSR that never was, a world defined by a robot uprising and the fragile balance between humans and machines. Filming is slated to begin in 2026, and Mundfish, the studio behind the original video game, will share creative oversight with Plus Studio in this cross-media venture.
Plus Studio is pushing into video games as a central strategic pillar. The project will sit alongside a slate of games, original series, novels, and comics. In addition, the company is developing Diamond Sword, Wooden Sword, based on Nik Perumov’s fiction, in collaboration with Acronix, marking a bold expansion into cross-genre storytelling.
“We realized that our audience’s experience would be incomplete if we did not offer them another form of entertainment in the coming years: video games”, said Mikhail Kitaev, head of Plus Studio. “Now there are gaming companies in the Russian market with whom we are interested in creating new worlds and new heroes. We hope that our projects will become an important part of the mass culture in our country.”
Earlier, the Atomic Heart team released first visuals for a DLC set in an underwater laboratory, signaling ongoing expansion of the game’s universe and new antagonists and technology. The move fits a broader strategy to weave cinematic, gaming, and literary content into a cohesive universe that can engage fans across platforms.
Analysts note that tying cinema, games, and literature into a single IP helps sustain interest over time and invites fans to explore the world from multiple angles. Mundfish’s involvement ensures visual and tonal continuity with the game, while Plus Studio brings its publishing and production capabilities to the venture, creating a pipeline from screen to page and back again. The collaboration is also being framed to appeal to audiences in North America and Canada, where there is a growing appetite for cross-media franchises that blend interactive and narrative experiences.
In addition to the film, the cross-media strategy envisions a robust ecosystem that includes series, books, and comics. The Diamond Sword, Wooden Sword project, developed with Acronix and based on Nik Perumov’s fiction, will extend the universe beyond the screen and console into serialized formats. This approach reflects a broader industry trend toward IP universes that give fans multiple入口 points for deeper engagement and longer-term fandom. The move also signals a recognition that video game narratives can serve as a launchpad for cinematic storytelling and vice versa, creating synergies that amplify reach and resonance across markets.
The news underscores Plus Studio’s ambition to be a leading force in cross-media storytelling in Russia and beyond. Kitaev emphasized that gaming is now a legitimate pillar of their creative strategy, promising that new worlds and heroes will emerge from collaborations with gaming studios. The studio aims to put Atomic Heart on a path where viewers, readers, and players encounter interconnected narratives that enrich the overall experience and invite continued exploration across a growing range of formats.
As development progresses, fans can expect continued updates on the underwater lab DLC, which has already seeded curiosity about what new environments and technologies lie ahead. The broader vision is a unified universe where the line between game, film, and literature becomes increasingly blurred, inviting audiences to move seamlessly between formats as interest evolves and expands.