Who hasn’t heard of the Minecraft phenomenon in recent years or played a little game of Candy Crush during a subway ride? These two video games, so different in style and playability, have in common that they have come out of the cold North of Europe . According to data from the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm, 1 in 10 people in the world have ever played, perhaps unknowingly, a video game designed and developed in Sweden .
Between 2015 and 2017, the profits of the Swedish video game industry increased by 26% and before that, in 2013, it had already earned 752 million euros. But where does this growth come from? Since the second decade of 2000 began and videogames lived a new Golden Age, growth in the sector has been widespread. Small and medium-sized studios emerged like mushrooms in a Super Mario and showed that they could take the limelight from industry giants.
The Nordic Success Formula
For years, Sweden has become a world benchmark for two sectors that come together in perfect harmony within videogames: technology and design . From the first we could highlight those bricks with which Ericcson conquered the European market in mobile telephony and which, for their time, were something completely groundbreaking. Of the second, it would be enough to mention the giant IKEA and its democratization of the elegant and modern design of Swedish creatives within the reach of any pocket. These two disciplines were extrapolated and applied to the world of videogames, giving rise to careful products with a clearly recognizable seal.
To these two key elements, which serve as the basis of this playful industry, we must add the innovation and competition that the Nordic countries have shown to have more than assumed in their own culture . Already in the 1980s, when the video game market was controlled by Japanese, American and British companies, a small national market emerged in Sweden in which developers used personal computers such as the Comodore 64 or the Amiga to demonstrate their skills and create small products that were known as Demo scenes . As would happen with Apple, from these fan groups, leading companies in the sector would emerge over the years (see the example of DICE , responsible for the Battlefield franchise).
Finally, to all the factors already mentioned, we must add the rapid assimilation that Swedish society made of gamer culture. The country understood this entertainment product as a discipline just as respectable as others with more experience, such as cinema, and it promoted and valued it from the very beginning. Currently, Sweden is the second country in the world that consumes the most eSports, celebrates the largest eSports championship in the world and video games are incorporated into the educational system and are considered a sector with great job opportunities . Dataspelsbranschen , which brings together all the companies in the Swedish video game industry, is one of the most important business organizations in the country.
Examples you may know
We refer to the tests. The list of titles developed in Sweden is long and very complete and in it we can find video games that have been awarded endlessly and were resounding successes since their launch. Let’s start by mentioning the best known: Minecraft , Candy Crush Saga , Battlefield , Unravel , Just Cause or Mirror’s Edge . From nearby Finland, which has managed to take advantage of free-to-play like no one else, we can highlight the Angry Birds and those from Rovio Studio . Furthermore, studios have found a new vein to nibble on thanks to the growing popularity of indie games.
With a new gameplay that is reinvented every moment and an attractive and careful visual section , video games from northern Europe have earned a niche in the industry that, hopefully, they will continue to maintain for a long time.
