BETA | REGION FOCUS // SWEDEN
MOVING TO SWEDEN?
RELOCATING TOSweden makes for a tempting option for games developers with a creeping sense of wanderlust. It is a beautiful country with a high percentage of fluent English speakers, and a rapidly expanding games industry is accompanied by an enviable quality of life. The country is also famously clean environmentally; so much so that locals insist you can safely take a swim in the river in downtown Stockholm. "Sweden is one of the highest ranked countries in the world when it comes to social welfare," states Peter Lu
̈beck,
studio director at Malmö- based Tarsier. "It has been named one of the happiest countries in the world, the best country for women, and Newsweek named it the third best country. Things that are considered fancy benefits in other countries are baked into everyday life in Sweden” And, fortunately, it's
relatively easy for those from outside the Nordic kingdom to make Sweden a home. "We have helped to relocate a number of people to Sweden in the last year, and each person we have spoken to has commented on the relocation being a relatively stress-free and straight- forward process," say Eamonn Mgherbi, business
60 | AUGUST 2012
development director at UK recruiter Avatar. "Most games studios in
Sweden offer relocation assistance in the form of financial remuneration, and many also offer direct support with the logistics of relocation for example helping to book reputable removals firms and find suitable accommodation and so on. "If you are European Citizen
then you will have no problem gaining entry and living in Sweden. Alternatively if you are a Non-EU Citizen then many games studios in the country can offer sponsorship and support when applying for a working VISA." If you’re looking for a case study of a studio that has welcomed staff from all over the Earth, developer Massive offers a typical example, as Martin Hultberg, head of communications and user research at the firm reveals. ”If you look at our studio,
almost 25 per cent of our co-workers come from abroad. We have people from the US, UK, Australia, Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Denmark, China and in total there are more than 20 nationalities represented at our studio. ”It probably has to do with
our way of life and the fact that Swedish studios have a reputation abroad for producing quality games.”
”We have a good mix of traditional
engineering universities that are heavy on maths and physics as well as more games focused institutions,” confirms Nilsson. ”Our game-centric courses have now been around long enough for the ex-students to be in hiring positions and they know the institutions very well.” Ekdal adds: ”From our tools and middleware point of view, Swedish universities produce great programmers with great math skills, which is absolutely
It’s looking good for the large studios as
well, with many great IPs either being developed from scratch here, or left in our care.
Peter Lübeck, Tarsier
necessary to us. There is no way we could do what we are doing without that. Students seem to find jobs in the industry, both nationally and abroad which says something about the quality.” Elsewhere positivity is again directed at
Sweden’s games development start-up culture, which has managed to embrace the likes of iOS, PSN and Steam with aplomb, perhaps inspired by the sensational fortunes of countryman and Mojang Specifications boss Markus Persson.
”Stockholm is currently clearly a tech
start-up hub, not just in games, but also in technology overall,” suggests Liu. “There’s a strong entrepreneurial scene here, so we are likely to see more new and disruptive initiatives coming from here in the future, whether they’re new technologies, business models, companies or simply games.” And while some are unsure about the games industry’s jobs market in the region, Liu is also quick to point out that a critical mass in terms of talent could see a snowball effect coming. “That would grow the talent pool and number of options even more. In short, I think the future is looking very bright,” he says. There’s hope too, for the big studios that
have pushed Sweden’s games sector into the limelight. With Battlefield 3 (above) and LittleBigPlanet serving as perfect examples, it is clear the Swedes know a thing or two about triple-A. ”I’d say it’s looking good for the large
studios as well, with many great IPs either being developed from scratch here, or left in our care,” concludes Tarsier’s Lübeck. ”Far Cry and LittleBigPlanet are just two examples of the latter.” Big and small, studios are undeniably
prospering in this Nordic region. Together, those that make up the development hub are proving that you don’t need tax-breaks and a booming population to make a mark on the global stage. Sweden is a small country with its populace spread thin, and yet today it is every bit a leading force in making games.
DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100