Innovative Finnish Gaming Ecosystem – Notable Success Stories

Finnish Gaming Ecosystem – Success Stories

The gaming sector in Finland has been around for many years, with a lot of experts bringing their knowledge to the table. There are constant innovations and ideas being developed thanks to the game culture there being very robust.

The business environment in the country is both stable and secure, with the sector being long in development and not relying on short term success. There will be varying skill levels for technology and innovation that you will come across, particularly when it comes to console, PC, and mobile gaming spaces. This is why there is a lot of top talent and firms being attracted to the gaming community in Finland.

Companies from all across the world have been looking at talent and companies in Finland for potential partnership and acquisition opportunities. The healthy R&D sector is an ideal way for global companies to improve their offering of games by working with the top-quality developers in Finland.

As time goes on, this is only going to become more and more prevalent. The best talent is being kept at home to work in these burgeoning game studios. It seems like only a matter of time before one of these developers blows up and becomes a household name. Here are some of the success stories that have been seen in recent years relating to the gaming ecosystem in Finland.

Examples of success stories

There have been many global success stories that begin in Finland. Some of these cases include the likes of Sulake’s Habbo Hotel, Maxx Payne I & Max Payne II, Secret Exit – ZenBound. Digital Chocolate is a developer that has on two occasions been voted as being the leading developer of mobile games at the Game Development Conference.

Success in iGaming

As well as seeing massive success with traditional video games for the likes of PC, consoles, and mobile, there have also been some notable success stories for developers in iGaming from Finland. Some of the best casinos in the world use games for Finnish developers, with these quality platforms available for you to check out at parhaatnetticasinot.org.

These games often took a unique approach to the creation of online games, often focusing on innovation. While a lot of the bigger developers can become stale as they churn out a lot of games every month, the smaller developers often take a less is more approach and focus more on quality over quantity, striving to bring something new to the table.

The online gambling sector in the country itself is limited, with a monopoly being in place through the government-owned Veikkaus Oy. This body was created in 2017 through the merging of the Finland Slot Machine Association, Fintoto, and Veikkaus. There have been talks about potentially ending this monopoly, which would further open the door to local developers to create great games and to cultivate a strong ecosystem for online casino game developers in the region.

A shining example

Futuremark Games Studio (bought by Rovio) has been a company that exhibits the future-looking attitude for developers in Finland. Its debut PC game named Shattered Horizon was initially launched back in November 2009. It avoided spending tons of money on marketing campaigns. Instead, a community-based strategy was instead implemented in order to spread the message of this game.

A community across social media was quickly built up, particularly when the game was still in the stages of beta. The developer heavily leaned in on the feedback from the community, with new layers added to this after working closely with some of these members of the community.

The developer knew that it wouldn’t be able to compete with the large developers as it was mostly self-published and self-funded. Rather than pushing for awareness on a mass-market level, the niche status of the game was embraced.

One of the key areas of focus was on the gaming forums, as well as through Twitter and Facebook. Those people who enjoyed the game were able to come together in the areas and share their love for the game. This experience was a massive milestone for the developer, using this as its basis for future games that it released.

The product development and marketing strategies were changed forevermore. By communicating with players on a regular basis a deeper connection was cultivated and the developers got important feedback in real-time, allowing them to make changes as needed, saving a lot of time, money, and heartache over the long term.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is a very strong ecosystem of game developers in Finland. While some of them prefer to take a low-key approach to their work, many of them have gotten critical acclaim across the world and been the basis for many massive games. A lot of these attributes were highlighted during the GameBreak virtual conference in May. This trend is only going to continue as time goes on.

With the best talent in the country more and more preferring to stay local and work with teams in Finland, it will stop the bigger multinational companies from poaching a lot of the great talent that exists in the country. It is definitely an exciting time to be involved with the gaming development space in Finland, with many exciting projects on the horizon.

Written by
G-LYFE a gaming culture and lifestyle brand. We live to game. Visit GamingLyfe.com for all your latest gaming news, reviews, Esports highlights, live streaming news, Cosplay, and G-LYFE Merchandise.

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