Worries over Swedish video game industry

Sunday, 25 March 2012
Television and computer games developed in Sweden, sold like hot cakes last year. Revenue is estimated to have grown by at least 50 percent.

This year, the growth has continued. But lack of skilled personnel and funding are two factors that have brought in increased concerns.

According to the Swedish Game industry organisation, they are having trouble finding the right skills as their industry’s growth look to continue. This situation has meant that they open offices abroad to access a larger pool of labour from there.

Stockholm-based Avalanche Studios, behind the games such as “Just Cause” and “Renegade ops,” have chosen this route and at the end of last year, opened their office in New York.
But even in Stockholm they needs more staff and Avalanche is one of several major developers who are currently advertising for labour.

CEO Christofer Sundberg, who hopes to find about 25 new employees during the spring and summer, said Avalanche in the wake of the last recession have become more cautious and are careful with their recruitments. Getting new graduates as game developers is taking too much time and resources.

"We employ only developers with very long experience, who have been through and done console games before. This makes it difficult to find developers that meet the requirements we have. "

Starbreeze, another of the largest Swedish developers, flagged recently for a major downsizing something Per Stromback thinks it is an exception.

"And I think those who lose jobs there will quite easily find new jobs, "he says.
The demand for staff is a result of the explosive growth of the blue and yellow games spouses.
Statistics from the games Industry comes only after the summer, but Strömbäck estimates that the total turnover last year rose by 50 percent - if not more.

The main reason is that the entrant GADGET, the company behind the hit game Minecraft, now included in the figures.
By Scancomark.se Team

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