Expansion continues as leading Eastern European and Turkish game developer associations unite their forces under EGDF
Malmö, August 19, 2016 – Three more members for the EGDF: Polish Games Association, Croatian Game Developer Association (CGDA) and Turkish Game Developers Association (TOGED) have been accepted as members of European Games Developer Federation. The new members enable EGDF more than ever to reach game developers studios throughout the European Union and other European countries.
Hendrik Lesser, the president of the EGDF comments: “My main goal has always been expansion, especially into Eastern Europe, and beyond the European Union. Our new members further increase the European importance of EGDF and help us better understand the challenges game developers in these regions are facing. Europe is more than just the European Union and we’re happy to see that reflected in our new members!”
In recent years, Turkey and Poland have been some of the most active countries in the world in developing new support measures for their growing game industries. Five different state agencies provide support for Turkish games developer studios at the moment, while Poland just launched an 18 million euro R&D fund to support local game developers.
Guillaume de Fondaumieré, the vice president of EGDF, underlines: “Each country in Europe and countries surrounding it have their unique approach on supporting their local games industry. This diversity is a significant strength for Europe as we can learn from mistakes, share best practices and use that information to build groundbreaking public support instruments that help the European games industry to create both jobs and growth.”
Game markets are global by nature, so regulatory fragmentation is one of the biggest challenges a successful game developer has to face when their games becomes a global hit. As one of the biggest market areas in the world, it is important for all game developers that the regulations in the European digital single market area stay coherent and are easy to access. Similarly, the importance of importance of Turkish markets is quickly growing and it is important that Turkish authorities follow the European and global practices while regulating them.
Jari-Pekka Kaleva, COO of EGDF, stresses: “The differences on how European regulation and guidelines are implemented on a Member State level and on its neighboring countries are one of the key challenges for the European digital single market area. Our new members significantly increase our capability to monitor the actual regulatory development after the triumphant talks and help as to address the crucial issues among a much wider group of leading policy makers and influencers than before.”
For further information, please contact: Jari-Pekka Kaleva, jari-pekka.kaleva@egdf.eu