1. EGDF calls on the EU to move forward and take action
The US export controls on AI tools by the US government are a new kind of non‑tariff barrier that directly affects European creative production, research and innovation. The Fable 5 / Mythos 5 shutdown by the US government is yet another example of how a single third‑country, or gatekeeper tech company, decision can immediately disrupt critical tools used by many European studios, including SMEs that lack the leverage or redundancy of large groups. With the sudden loss of access to AI models used for prototyping, localisation, testing or content creation, European studios are again forced to adapt overnight to decisions taken outside the EU’s legal order, with little transparency or time to prepare for new market-access barriers to leading game development tools. This disrupts both fair competition and the game production pipeline.
EGDF views the Fable 5/Mythos 5 shutdown by the US government as another major alarm bell, showing that the EU cannot outsource its digital and cultural infrastructure to any third country. The US government has invoked national security powers to order the suspension of access to specific frontier AI systems (Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5) to all foreign nationals, including EU‑based users and non‑US staff of US companies. Although Anthropic later decided to make these models at least temporarily unavailable for everyone, this US government decision effectively demonstrates the systemic risks associated with Europe’s dependency on non‑European cloud, AI, game engines, data analytics tools, advertising networks and distribution platforms that European studios rely on without European fallbacks.
After years of signals ranging from trade and geopolitical conflicts to unfair market practices by game-industry gatekeeper service providers, the EU has received more than enough warnings. Instead of reactive, defensive actions, it is now time to turn the ambition for European technological and cultural sovereignty into a concrete reality within the game industry ecosystem.
The accelerating pace of disruptive innovation poses serious risks to the European game industry because core technologies such as game engines, AI tools, distribution platforms, and ad networks are mostly in non‑EU hands. The US export controls are part of a broader pattern of emerging digital trade wars and conflicts, regional game bans, investment restrictions, and data‑flow limitations that the EGDF has repeatedly warned will endanger the European games industry’s ability to compete and operate globally.
The US government’s decision confirms that, in strategic digital infrastructure like the AI, the US can no longer be treated as an unquestioned partner for the EU in accessing sector-critical digital infrastructure and services. EU policy must be built on international collaboration combined with strong digital and cultural sovereignty and resilience, not on political goodwill in Washington D.C., or in any other capital. A fragmented global order and strategic competition over technologies will only result in more trade and export restrictions, regional bans and tighter restrictions on cross‑border data and talent mobility.
Most European game developers are micro‑companies and SMEs with limited resources; for them, abrupt loss of AI tooling or middleware can halt production, derail hiring plans and compromise investor trust. Because games are a leading European cultural medium, such shocks do not only threaten revenue and jobs, but also Europe’s capacity to tell its own stories on its own terms.
Consequently, the EU must take immediate action:
- The European Commission must launch an immediate impact assessment of the US export‑control decision on the European games sector, other cultural and creative industries, and the ICT sector, with a specific focus on SMEs.
- The EU must continue its efforts to resolve the deadlock in WTO negotiations on digital trade, in particular on digital tariffs and try to make the WTO once again a competent organisation to address trade disputes like this. At the same time, the EU must initiate a parallel process to build a global digital single market with like-minded countries to counter US and Chinese dominance and to build a strong global alliance against unilateral measures like this that undermine global digital trade.
- The EU must take action to strengthen its sectoral cultural and digital sovereignty.
2. How to build European technological and cultural sovereignty in the games industry
The US export clearly demonstrates why the EU must take immediate action to support European technological and cultural sovereignty also in the European game industry. It also demonstrates why the EU preparedness for digital disruptions must be “by design”, ensuring access to critical technologies and services even when global value chains are disrupted.
Action 1: Put European game devs at the top of the data value chain
Guarantee developer access to player data. The EU must ensure that all platforms, including cloud streaming services, provide developers with meaningful, real‑time access to relevant player data and allow integration with developers’ own back ends. Therefore, it is crucial that the implementation of the DMA and ongoing digital omnibus process of data‑economy legislation (Data Act, DGA, GDPR) explicitly safeguards developers’ access to player data and cloud interoperability needed to switch away from non‑EU providers if required.
Enable European “data syndicates”. Allow and support SME‑led European data‑sharing cooperatives in which studios pool data under GDPR‑compliant processor–controller models, keeping both control and responsibility in European hands.
Action 2: Build a European alternative for game production, marketing and distribution infrastructure
We must be the technological disruption we want to see in the world. The game industry is one of the few cultural and creative sectors with the technological competence to build its own tools. The best way to empower European cultural and creative sectors to navigate ongoing technological disruptions (e.g., creative AI) is to ensure that new disruptive technologies are developed by the European cultural and creative industries (e.g., game developer studios) for the European cultural and creative industries. The European cultural and creative industries must not adapt to technological disruptions; they must be empowered to be the disruption.
Pinpointed actions are not a strategy to reach European digital sovereignty – Europe needs sectoral strategies for cultural and digital sovereignty. Currently, the EU’s digital sovereignty plans are built on targeted measures to reduce European dependence on non-EU chips, cloud services, and AI tools. However, the EU lacks coherent sectoral strategies to build complete European alternatives for sector-critical infrastructure. For example, the European game industry needs an interconnected infrastructure that brings European gaming devices to market, promotes open-source operating system alternatives, strengthens European game distribution platforms, supports European game engines and AI-based game production tools, helps European game analytic services, introduces European advertising networks and payment solutions, and runs all of this on a European cloud.
Digital sovereignty does not happen without public funding.
The EU needs a coordinated, ecosystem‑level strategic focus on European cultural and digital sovereignty during the upcoming funding period. EU member states must treat digital cultural, and in particular games infrastructure (including AI services), as strategic investment during upcoming budget cycles, ensuring dedicated funding and risk‑mitigation instruments for European SME game developers. The collaboration with the Swedish AI factory funded by EuroHPC and RISE, providing SMEs access to computing power, is proof that Europe can organise large‑scale, shared computer infrastructure with a sovereignty angle. The EU needs a game tech equivalent of the kind of coordinated, publicly backed effort the EU already does in chips and high-performance computing.
The EU must use the new Horizon Europe program and competitiveness funding, as well as national R&D schemes, to systematically back European game engines, networking stacks, AI tools, multiplayer back‑ends, ad‑tech and analytics tools tailored to game studios’ needs.
The EU must promote European solutions. The Commission must promote trusted third‑party app stores and alternative browser engines in Europe.
As already acknowledged by the European Commission, open source and open technical standards are central to European digital sovereignty. The EU and its member states should fund and foster open‑source game engines, AI frameworks, networking/multiplayer stacks, and analytics tools.
The EU needs European cloud infrastructure. The Commission must encourage green, EU‑based data centres and cloud providers to target the game sector, linking climate‑friendly infrastructure with strategic autonomy. It is crucial to note that it is not enough to have a European solution for European players, but we need a European solution that can provide global cloud infrastructure for all players of a game around the globe.
Public procurement must lead the way. Public‑sector procurement is critical for European digital, cloud and AI services and they should systematically prioritise trusted European providers.
Action 3: Enable fair competition with mainly US-based digital gatekeepers
The Commission must fully implement and vigorously enforce the Digital Markets Act to secure fair access to distribution, payment systems and in‑app communication. The Commission must broaden the scope of the DMA to include sectoral gatekeeping technologies such as game engines.
The Commission must keep key elements of P2B regulation in force and initiate a process to regulate unfair, non-negotiable B2B contract terms. The US government decision has reportedly led to a general ban on European users, with no right to complain, even though companies might have US citizens working for them. This clearly demonstrates why it is crucial to keep the safeguards of a predictable app removal process and the right to complain under P2B regulation in place, and to begin developing a general European regulatory framework for unfair, non-negotiable B2B contract terms.
Action 4: Take action to defend European cultural sovereignty
The Commission and member states must increase funding for games and culture and defend their inclusion in cultural state-aid exemptions in all trade and digital‑trade negotiations. The EU and its member states must provide robust funding schemes that continue to support independent European studios. These funding instruments must not be constrained by third‑country demands.
The European children’s access to culture and their protection from harmful content must be based on European standards. PEGI age ratings are a cornerstone of European cultural sovereignty because they allow Europe to apply its own fundamental‑rights‑based understanding of childhood, culture and protection to games, rather than importing foreign standards through global platforms. By combining granular, pan‑European age categories with content descriptors and an enforceable Code of Conduct, PEGI ensures that children’s access to games is limited only where content is genuinely unsuitable, thereby preventing over‑protective systems from unnecessarily blocking young Europeans from their right to participate in cultural and artistic life. Non‑European distribution platforms operating in Europe must therefore systematically support and display PEGI labels and integrate them into parental control tools, so that European legal, ethical and cultural standards govern how minors’ access to digital culture is organised in the EU.
Action 5: The EU must build a global digital single market area with like-minded countries to counter US and Chinese dominance
The Commission must pursue the creation of a “global digital single market area” with countries that share EU commitments to fundamental rights and the rule of law. By the end of the century, the EU will lose even more of its market power to rising Asian countries. The EU must start building a global alliance to defend its global influence in digital markets.
Action 6: Keep the borders of Europe open for the best global talent
The Commission and member states must make Europe the most attractive location for global game and AI talent. EUrope must move faster and smarter in attracting game‑ and AI‑talent, cut immigration red tape and invest in top‑tier game‑tech education, so that sovereign digital tools can actually be built and maintained in Europe.
3. What can the European game industry do now
It is clear that, as a result of US export controls on AI tools, European game development studios must map their dependencies on non‑EU game tech and services and assess where they need redundancy or alternative providers. Especially SME game developer studios should also map the European opportunities public funding instruments and regulatory framework provide for collaboration between studios to tackle this enormous challenge.
The US export controls are not just a wake-up call for game developer studios, but also for European trade associations. We must do more to bring together European engine/tool/middleware providers, relevant open‑source projects, and infra providers and promote them. We need more comparable data on which AI tools and models European studios depend on. We need better tools to track AI tool TOS changes affecting European game developers. We must build a clear European technical roadmap for technological sovereignty.
About EGDF
The European Games Developer Federation e.f. (EGDF) unites 27 national trade associations representing game developer studios based in 24 European countries: Austria (PGDA), Belgium (FLEGA and WALGA), Croatia (CGDA), Czechia (GDACZ), Estonia (Gamedev Estonia), Finland (Suomen pelinkehittäjät), France (SNJV), Germany (GAME and GBM), Ireland (IMIRT), Italy (IIDEA), Lithuania (LZKA), Netherlands (DGA), Norway (VIRKE Produsentforeningen), North-Makedonia (MGI), Poland (PGA and IGP), Portugal (APVP), Romania (RGDA), Serbia (SGA), Slovakia (SGDA), Spain (DEV), Sweden (Spelplan-ASGD), Switzerland (SGDA), Turkey (TOGED) and the United Kingdom (TIGA). Through its members, EGDF represents more than 2 500 game developer studios, most SMEs, employing more than 45 000 people.
The games industry represents one of Europe’s most compelling economic success stories. Located at the crossroads of the ICT and cultural industries, the game industry is one of the rapidly growing segments of the cultural and creative industries. In 2023, there were around 5 900 game developer studios and publishers in the EU, employing over 91 000 people and running a combined turnover of close to €19bn. In 2024, Europe’s games market was worth €26,8bn, and the industry has registered a growth rate of 4% in key European markets. The European digital single market is the third-largest game market globally.
The EGDF is committed to defending free digital markets globally, as well as European digital and cultural sovereignty, and to keeping EU game developers at the top of the data, platform and payment value chains. For us, European technological and cultural sovereignty is not about isolation or protectionism, but about reducing single‑point dependencies and building resilient European alternatives while staying open to global collaboration.
For more information:
- EGDF statement in a PDF format: https://www.egdf.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/202606-EGDF-CALLS-ON-THE-EU-TO-TAKE-ACTION-TO-DEFEND-EUROPEAN-CULTURAL-AND-TECHNOLOGICAL-SOVEREIGNTY.pdf
- For more information on EGDF’s position on digital and cultural sovereignty, please visit: https://www.egdf.eu/documentation/fundamental-rights/building-european-digital-and-cultural-sovereignty/
- For more information on EGDF’s position on digital trade policy, please visit: https://www.egdf.eu/documentation/5-fair-digital-markets/9-trade-policy/