authorities have strived to build an especially tech-literate populace. ”In the late nineties the Swedish
government subsidised computers for home usage, which lead to a high number of people having access to computers at home,” explains Ranta-Eskola. “In addition to this, the Swedish IT infrastructure was well-developed early.” These two components were key in
driving Sweden’s initial boom in the computer technology sector, which saw many successful dot-com companies setting up as the internet became an ordinary part of day-to-day life across the West. “This was very beneficial to the games
industry,” and we can see a lot of the effects from this strategy now,” Ranta-Eskola continues. “I can’t say there is any particular segment where the Swedish games industry is especially strong. It feels like it’s thriving in all areas as well as driving development on some of the newer platforms.” Another factor that some games
companies in Sweden feel is important is the business culture that is working practice not just in the technology sectors, but across the nation’s various industries. ”Most Swedish businesses are very flat in
their organisation, creating an environment where staff can be creative and experimental,” says Christoffer Nilsson, CEO, of localisation specialist LocalizeDirect, before moving on to discuss a Nordic institution that many Finnish devs also credit with fostering talent on their side of the border. ”Historically we used to be very strong on the programming and tech side with the demo-scene providing a breeding
ground for games programmers. We then followed up with improving our graphical capabilities and most recently also mastered the design functions which has manifested itself in some very impressive titles in the last few years”
Most Swedish businesses are flat
in their organisation, creating an environment where staff can be creative.
Samuel Ranta-Eskola, Hansoft
COLD COMFORT Few would be surprised, however, to learn that Swedish games developers have their own set of challenges to overcome before the country can hope to rival the world’s gaming superpowers. Most developers start to address Sweden’s obstacles to progress by joking about the region’s infamously gloomy winters, but the weather is in fact the least of their worries. ”I think our isolation and distance from
everyone else affects our recruiting a lot,” says a realistic Liu, who also refutes the idea that Sweden has to put little effort into attracting overseas talent (see panel ‘Moving to Sweden’). “On one hand it’s hard to get people to move here; on the other hand once you’re established here you’ll most likely stay within the community for a while which helps talent retention.”
“The recruitment aspect might be a challenge because of, again, the relatively small population,” adds Martin Ekdal, VP of sales and marketing at Donya Labs and Simplygon, which provides tool-chain middleware for the automatic optimisation of 3D game content. “Finding niched people for specific tasks is
harder than in the UK, US or Canada for instance. The combination of a very international industry and high regional taxes might cause talent to seek jobs elsewhere and make it hard to keep talent in Sweden.” The last substantial task for Swedish
developers to address is one that will be familiar to anyone who has seen their own country push for the likes of tax-breaks, as Martin Hultberg, head of communications and user research at Massive details. ”Right now I think one big challenge is subsidies,” he says. ”Some countries get government sponsored subsidies which make it more likely for large publishers to invest there. We don’t have that so running a studio here can be a bit more expensive than in other places.”
BRIGHT SPARKS Certainly, Sweden has not managed to attract as many publishing giants and mega-studios as the likes of Canada, but to dwell on the negatives is to misrepresent the overwhelmingly optimistic outlook of nearly every studio that calls the country a home. Unlike many other regions, where the
relationship between educators and studios is sometimes defined by a troubled relationship, numerous developers are upbeat about the country’s games education courses.
AUGUST 2012 | 59
Top to bottom: EA DICE’s Patrick Liu, Per Strömbäck of The Association of Swedish Game Developers, Peter Lübeck of Tarsier, Hansoft’s Samuel Ranta- Eskola and Rovio’s Petri Järvilehto. Main image: Massive Entertainment’s RTS World in Conflict