European publishers are looking to Turkey for their talent as game developers

Much like a sunrise at a Big Sur campground or the fresh feeling of trying on a Saint Laurent suit for the first time, I was pleasantly drawn into this discussion between four gambling industry financial and business experts from the start. It’s rare that gamers are exposed to the business behind creating the art that defines the gaming business. In truth, many players would like to ignore this aspect of gaming. However, it’s often the dynamics in the business structure that drives what so many of us have questions about – that failure to listen can obscure many deep insights.

Nikolaj Nyholm, Alexis Bonte, Sofia Dolfe and Harri Manninen came together to discuss the European games investment landscape during the week-long GamesBeat Summit and some factors were very insightful. A panel composed of both venture capital insiders and industry leaders involved in talent scouting, mergers and acquisitions unearthed three details: geographic locations of emerging game development talent, what’s up with Ukraine and its game development potential happens and whether or not customer pushback really matters in alternative monetization methods.

In the cyclical search for studios with high development talent, Turkey is the place these panelists are currently eyeing.

“In the last five years … we’ve seen the outliers appear in other places. I think first it was Israel, then it became Turkey,” Nyholm said.

Dolfe echoed that feeling.

“We see such strong talent coming from there,” she said. “Strong hubs for tech talent, strong concentrations of studios. There were previous hits like Peak Games…” [makers of mobile games Toy Blast and Toon Blast] “…which also…gave a sense of what can be achieved…and what success might look like. Operators that have been part of that journey then also try to start new businesses and start new studios.”

Expect more investment money in the games industry to go in this direction and for a studio to break out of the crowd and put itself on the map with gamers from there.

In a war, the safety of the people must come first

Manninen continued the discussion on emerging talent markets by addressing Ukraine.

“I would have said Russia, Belarus and even Ukraine,” Manninen said. “All these established companies had interesting new teams coming out and trying to connect with, say, global capital to build global studios and powerhouses, but now obviously the war in Ukraine has put an end to it [to that]. We felt this could have been the next logical ecosystem to grow and also become more global.”

Ukraine, which used to be considered one of the safe havens for new gaming talent, may have missed an opportunity for massive investment due to the war in Russia. The panellists agreed that they cannot look to the land to make games when its inhabitants are only trying to survive.

Blockchain games could be yet to come, even as players balk at the prospect

The panel then dealt with the opinions of gamers on new business models. Business leaders in particular said they would likely continue experimenting with blockchain, even as most gaming fans make it clear they hate the idea. Bonte said he’s seen this anger before.

“To be honest, I don’t think the backlash is any worse than when we saw the transition from premium to free-to-play,” Bonte said. “Everyone who worked in games said, ‘These aren’t games, what you’re doing is terrible, it’s dirty, it’s bad, it’s bad for the players.’ But look at free-to-play games today.”

Like it or not, one of the driving forces behind the evolution of the gaming industry is that there is a race to see who starts this disorder and who jumps in early for fear of being left behind. Bonte thinks the backlash from consumers is normal. The industry will evolve and the market will decide whether it is successful or not.

Listening to this panel is a great opportunity to get acquainted with the business dynamics that some of the top investors and most aggressive studios are watching. Hearing how the heat of the development studios is moving and shifting from one area to another and where the industry is poised to weather the storm of negative consumer sentiment and move forward is incredibly enlightening. This panel is just one of the reasons every student in the industry should pay attention to this and other sessions of GamesBeat Summit 2022.