In Barcelona, ??it is already common for senior executives of video game companies to appear in the city to look for business opportunities. A few years ago they only set foot in Catalonia during fairs and congresses, but now, in district 22@, it is not uncommon to find managers of large multinationals such as Microsoft, Rovio, Take Two, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, Gameloft, Paradox or Funplus.
Recently, these companies have opened offices with hundreds of workers specializing in the development of video games on a global scale. They take advantage of the talent that emerges from universities and also the proposals of small independent video game studios. The latest example: the collaboration between Alike Studio and the Japanese multinational Bandai Namco, which has commissioned the Tamagotchi video game, the popular digital pet that during the nineties demanded the attention of the little ones in the house.
“After the pandemic, Barcelona has become a mandatory stop when these Asian or American executives visit Europe”, says Iván Fernández Lobo, promoter of the association of video game companies Devicat. “Barcelona and Spain as a whole already have impact and influence on a global scale”, says Xavier Carrillo, founder of the Digital Legends studio, acquired by the giant Activision Blizzard (Microsoft), which develops the popular violent game Call of Duty in the city .
According to the White Book of the Catalan video game industry, prepared by the Generalitat, the Catalan ecosystem is made up of 196 companies, a quarter of the country’s total, and its workforce reaches 4,249 workers, which means half of the whole spanish The figures are not updated, they are from 2021, as the sector has difficulty collecting information due to the disparity of businesses: small and large studios, startups that develop technology for third parties, publishing companies, marketing, portability or distribution. ..
Without updated data from the 2023 financial year, it is difficult to take stock. Despite this, sector agents ensure that Barcelona’s ecosystem is in good health. “The industry has kept its pulse despite the drop in investment on a global scale and the brake on growth after the boom of the pandemic”, comments Joan Francesc Baño, executive director of the business incubator Gamebcn, in which the video game has emerged Endling, awarded a Bafta award in 2023.
The forecasts of the Generalitat point to a sustained increase in turnover, going from 660 million euros in 2021 to 779 million in 2022 and 911 million in 2023. There are indications that corroborate the dynamism of the ecosystem in 2023. Several multinationals have landed in the city in recent months: the Finnish Rovio, which develops the Angry Birds game, the Chinese NetEase, the Saudi Sandsoft or the Swiss Funplus. The entry of the Asian giant Tencent into the shareholding of Novarama, a veteran studio in the city, has also been highlighted.
According to Fernández Lobo, Barcelona already stands out for games of all kinds of formats. The city has left behind its phase of specialization in mobile gaming. This is the business that two decades ago allowed him to enter the industry and differentiate himself from the Madrid ecosystem, historically focused on consoles and distribution. In this regard, Carrillo cites Activision Blizzard’s decision to install the Infinity Ward team to develop the Call of Duty console video game as an example. In fact, the data from the White Book, relating to 2021, point in the same direction: 75% of games created in Catalonia are intended for the PC; 56%, on mobile, and 50%, on the console. The solidity and transversal nature of the industry in Barcelona is also evident by comparing the turnover figure by territory. According to this report, Catalonia accounts for 52% of Spanish turnover, while Madrid accounts for 27%; Valencia, 6%, and Andalusia, also 6%.
The keys to the consolidation of the sector in Barcelona are the result of a coordinated effort between the public and private sectors that began in the early 2000s. Thanks to this, no one doubts that there is locally trained talent in Barcelona, ??but also “it is true that wages are more competitive compared to other European cities”, admits Fernández Lobo. There is no official salary data, but according to some consulted portals, such as Glassdor or Pingle, a developer in Barcelona earns an average of 37,000 euros per year, compared to 60,000 in London, 80,000 in Helsinki or 90,000 in the United States .
Beyond wages, the workforce has experienced a year of austerity (following the general tone of the technology sector), but in Spain it has not been noticed at the moment. In fact, large multinationals have carried out massive staff cuts, such as Epic Games (16% of jobs), Electronic Arts (6%), Ubisoft and the gaming divisions of Amazon and Microsoft.
“Investment in the technology sector has fallen in general, and in addition, the video game has had a drop in consumption after the boom of the pandemic that has not compensated for the avalanche of launches that were postponed due to the health crisis” , comments Baño. According to data from the employer Aevi for the year 2022, the consumption of video games in Spain stands at 7.42 hours a week, 8% less than the previous year.
On a global scale, this drop in consumption has already been felt in revenue, as reflected in the graph on the turnover of video game companies, which in 2022 recorded a decline of 3.5% after years in continuous growth. Baño says that this has reduced the profitability of publishing companies, which are the ones that invest in video game studios for the launch of new products. “The impact has been on a large scale, because hardly any new games have come out, but it has also been on a small scale. A couple of years ago, a studio could easily get a million euros to launch its first game, while now the funding is close to 400,000 euros”, comments the director of Gamebcn, who is confident that this cycle conservative will end sooner or later.
In addition to the difficulty of obtaining capital, developers lament the saturation of the market. “There are more and more initiatives and it is difficult to stand out. This didn’t happen ten years ago”, acknowledge Xavi and Marc Terri, founders of Alike Studio. Despite the saturation, the industry feels that it has not yet reached maturity, especially in the mobile gaming division. “In developing countries, in Asia and Africa, there is a lot of room for growth”, says Baño, who remembers that Barcelona has an advantage because it started developing content for this format 20 years ago.