Cutting-edge Swedish game developers are coming to London
Video game development has fast become a booming business in Sweden. The country’s official trade association for the industry says the number of Swedish video game companies has risen by more than 50% over the last five years. South Sweden has emerged as a geographic area that’s particularly robust in game development.
Companies based in Skåne, the country’s southernmost region, are currently developing games for major international media franchises like Star Wars and James Bond. The region’s largest city, Malmö, is home to offices for seven of the ten largest game development companies in Sweden.
It is, therefore, no surprise that an upcoming delegation of Swedish game developers heading for London will include representatives of several companies from south Sweden. The group will be in town for the London Games Festival and Swedish-British Games Connect 2023, a unique event coinciding with the festival designed to help create business opportunities and cooperation between video game companies in Sweden and the United Kingdom.
“This is the perfect opportunity for us,” says Anna Bostam, CEO of Undone Games, which is based in Malmö and is one of the companies travelling to London. “We can’t wait to go, talk about our game, meet other people within the industry, and connect with publishers and investors.”
Connecting with the British video games industry
Swedish-British Games Connect 2023 is co-organised by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce for the UK and Invest in Skåne, the official investment promotion agency for the Skåne region. It will be hosted at the chamber’s London location on the evening of March 30th, and along with the Swedish delegation, many stakeholders from the UK video game industry – such as publishers, investors, and game developers – will also be there.
The day before, March 29th, is the official start of this year’s London Games Festival – billed as “the world's biggest celebration of video games and interactive entertainment” – which the Swedish delegation will be attending as well.
“We like the setup of events such as the London Games Festival, where both businesses and players interact. The main reason for us to attend is to introduce our games to potential UK game business development partners,” says Robert Bäckström, founder of Aurora Punks, a collective of Swedish independent game studios. Along with Aurora Punks and Undone Games, the delegation also includes Omniscapes Interactive, Frostglade, and Apog Labs.
Officially selected by the London Games Festival
For Undone Games, the trip will be especially pivotal. The company’s first release, Letter Me, was launched this week and has been chosen for the “international innovators” category of the London Games Festival’s Official Selection programme, which showcases just over 30 specific games throughout the week-and-a-half-long event. A player-versus-player mobile word game, Letter Me pits two users against one another in a challenge to create words in a 5x5 grid with letters they each take turns choosing. The game will be simultaneously released for IOS and Android, as well as in both Swedish and English (with the UK as one of its first markets).
“We just wanted to create this game because it’s fun,” explains Bostam. “And it has been a crazy, super-fun, and very busy time.”
Formed in June 2022, Undone Games is unique in that its founders (which includes Bostam) had no prior experience in game development. Veterans of the branding and communication industry, they were driven by what Bostam describes as a shared love of word games and the discovery that women, age 40+, are largely responsible for growth in mobile gaming but seem to be the demographic that developers give the least amount of focus.
Malmö's friendly games community sparks further growth
Bostam and her co-founders were already based in Malmö, so it was quite easy to find members of the game development sector with whom they could discuss their idea and explore how to produce it.
“I’m so impressed by the community in Malmö,” says Bostam. “Everyone has been so helpful and encouraging. They really took the time to sit down and talk with me for hours about an idea or ways of testing it.”
According to Olof Kindblad, Game Developer and Studio Manager at Apog Labs, which along with being a fellow company in the delegation, is also based in Malmö, it’s a common experience of those in the city’s game development scene.
“Here, you won’t find competition but collaboration, not adversaries but advice and most likely friends and relationships that extend well beyond your regular work hours,” says Kindblad.
It was the Malmö game development community that eventually lead Undone Games to the extraordinary opportunity to be part of the delegation to London. As Bostam explains, building international connections with publishers, investors, and other developers is essential for the success of a video game company, especially if it wants to release updates for its games or create new ones.
“We want to keep developing,” she says. “We have a long backlog of cool stuff we want to do.”
Interested in joining southern Sweden's vibrant video game industry?
Visit the Skåne booth at W.A.S.D Careers, part of the London Games Festival’s W.A.S.D. expo! You can talk to representatives of the game development communities of Skåne and Värmland, including those from non-profit groups supporting regional industry development like Game Habitat and The Great Journey.
Game devlopment in Sweden
According to the Game Developer Index 2022 by Dataspelsbranschen (Swedish Games Industry), the national trade association for video game companies, there are currently 785 video game companies registered in Sweden. Ninety-two of those companies started in 2021, 21 are listed on the stock exchange in Sweden, and just 14 out of all of them existed in the 1990s.
Domestic revenue in 2021: EUR 2.7 billion
Domestic revenue growth rate 2020 to 2021: 28%
Revenue generated outside of Sweden: EUR 3.1 billion
Number of employees in 2021: 7,944
Employee growth rate 2020 to 2021: 20%
The video games industry in south Sweden
According to a 2022 report mapping the video game industry in south Sweden by Game Habitat, a non-profit organisation dedicated to growing the industry in Skåne and Blekinge, Sweden’s two southernmost regions are home to 120 video game companies. That’s a little more than double the number of such companies in 2017.
Revenue in 2021: SEK 2.5 billion (EUR 218 million)
Profit in 2021: SEK 268 million (EUR 23.4 million)
Number of employees in 2021: 1,515
Employee growth rate 2020 to 2021: 21%
Share of employees that are women in 2021: 21%
Karin Svenonius
Senior PR & Marketing Manager
karin.svenonius@skane.se
Invest in Skåne is the official investment promotion agency for Sweden's southernmost region – Skåne. We provide professional advice and services to international companies considering Skåne for future investments and attract valuable talent to the region to secure a skilled, diverse and competent workforce in Skåne.
