The global video game industry measures its revenues in hundreds of billions of dollars, and its growth is noticeable in Serbia, which can be seen in the International Gaming Conference, which was held last Friday in Belgrade.
Speaking for the morning programme of Radio Belgrade 1, managing director of the Serbian Gaming Association (SGA) Kristina Janković presented data that confirm the growth of the industry in Serbia.
“In 2021, the Serbian video game industry earned a total of 125 million euros”, said Janković. “This shows a stable growth of between five and ten percent per year. The industry employs 2,200 people. Interestingly, 30 percent of them are women, which ranks us first in Europe for women’s participation. In the past year alone, video games created in Serbia have been downloaded or purchased as many as 370 million times.”
The development of the video game industry globally is mostly helped by state funds dedicated to financing young teams and gaming projects.
“Italy set aside four million euros the year before last and 10 million last year, Germany as much as 50 million, and that of course resulted in a huge jump in published games. Serbia is regional leader in developing the video game industry. Croatia is right behind us, but there is great interest in the entire region for a kind of regional networking that would lead to a stronger performance globally”, said Janković.
However, despite the constant and stable development of the video game industry, Serbia is still lagging behind more developed European countries.
“If we look at, say, Sweden or Finland, we are now where those countries were 10 years ago. The Swedish video game industry earned 3.3 billion euros last year alone, but that can be offset by sharing knowledge and experience. We must constantly learn from more developed countries to make progress even faster”, explained the SGA director.
The development of the video game industry in our country can be influenced by a stronger role for the state through investment and the development of education, but also by parents who can become a real flywheel if they recognize the future in the development of this industry.
“We need to change people’s awareness in the sense that it is really a serious industry and profession, so that parents are not afraid to send their children to faculties that will point them down this path, because it is really an opportunity to do wonderful and creative work”, said Janković.
The Serbian Gaming Association encourages young people to become part of the video game industry. On its website and on YouTube channel there are databases of information and a large number of lectures that can help young people to take that first step and become part of the industry in our country.