Neogames, the interest organization of the Finnish gaming industry, has published its report introducing the prospects and development of the gaming industry for 2021-2022.
The overall picture of the Finnish gaming industry is very positive as measured by all metrics. In 2021, the turnover of this sector increased to about 3.2 billion euros. There has been a growth of more than 30 percent in the business as compared to last year. Also, in 2022, the turnover is estimated to be 3.2 billion Euros. A profit has also been generated, as the industry has an operating profit of 0.9 billion euros in 2021. The result for 2022 is not yet known.
With these figures, the Finnish gaming industry ranks among the five largest in Europe and is the leading producer of mobile games.
“It is worth noting that, over the past 10 years, the Finnish gaming industry has generated a cumulative turnover of 23 billion Euros and has paid Finland more than 2.5 billion Euros in various taxes. It can therefore be said that the gaming industry has become an important part of the Finnish national economy.”
Commented by Neogames director KooPee Hiltunen
Growing employer suffers from skills shortage
The Finnish gaming industry is also an important and ever-growing employer. In 2022, the Finnish gaming industry is expected to employ over 4,000 people in Finland and abroad for the first time. The total number of employees in the industry was projected to be approximately 4,100 at the end of 2022. The number of authors has increased by about five hundred since the end of 2020.
The number of game studios has also started to grow again, and Finnish game developers are now boldly setting up new companies. At the end of 2022, it was estimated that there would be 232 active Finnish game studios.
The skills shortage is still one of the biggest challenges facing the industry. The industry predicts a need for at least 500 additional employees over the next two years. Finding specialists in Finland is challenging, so the industry recruits heavily from the international market and makes use of international remote work.
Innovation is the lifeblood of the gaming industry
Instead, there has been a decline in the number of new games released. This is not a bad thing and is due to studios adapting to international trends, ie the games as a service model is becoming more common. The life cycle of games is getting longer and companies are focusing on further development of existing games.
The Finnish gaming industry is best known as a developer of mobile games, but PC is already almost as popular a platform (64%) as mobile devices (66%). Multi-platform game development is common in Finland, as 59 percent of studios develop games for two or more platforms.
Finnish game developers are actively exploring new opportunities in the game market with artificial intelligence, web3, new platforms, multiple earning models and user generated game content. Game studios are actively pursuing the rapid development of creative artificial intelligence, but practical applications in game development processes are still a work in progress. Much is expected of artificial intelligence, for example in terms of increasing production costs and creating increasingly personalized game experiences.
