We can state emphatically that Barcelona has consolidated itself as the main hub in Southern Europe for the video game industry. Between endogenous initiative and the companies that have settled in our home, today the Catalan market leads the ranking of companies in Spain and Southern Europe. In the Spanish case, Catalonia accounts for almost 30% of companies, 53% of turnover, and 47% of employment in the sector.
Companies born in Barcelona such as Novorama, Digital Legends Entertainment, or Social Point, among many others, and giants like King, Ubisoft, Scopely, or IGG, to name some of the most important, are part of this hundred companies that, little by little, have been creating a technological ecosystem in the Catalan capital.
With the video game industry in Catalonia, something similar to the healthcare cluster is happening. Evidently, on a smaller scale, but it has some similarities. Often many economists wonder why territories with a GDP equal to or higher than Catalonia have not managed to create so many patents, publications, specialists, professionals, and institutions that achieve excellence in the healthcare field. In the video game sector, something similar is happening, and I will try to point out some of the causes that have been responsible for this boom and consolidation of the sector in Catalonia and, especially, in Barcelona.
To begin with, it is necessary to highlight the fact that in Catalonia there is an important, prolonged design tradition with powerful schools. This fact, in itself, already facilitates the existence of a mentality capable of lighting the fuse. In schools like Elisava, Bau, Escola Massana, Eina... a lineage of designers has been forged who have contributed decisively to a culture very recognized worldwide. Artistic disciplines such as comics, which has schools like JOSO, where thousands of artists have been trained, are related to design. If we add the academic excellence achieved by our engineering and computer science schools, we would already have a very powerful base. But it is true that it would not be enough to explain the rise of this industry. Many European capitals are also strong in design, but they have not experienced this pull in the video game business.
The capture of the Mobile World Congress placed Barcelona in the spotlight of many companies and professionals who related the city's potential with the event. Video games and applied games need platforms, and mobile is currently the main window for their business. Many professionals and entrepreneurs from all over the world got to know the capital of Catalonia thanks to Mobile.
The birth of video game design schools in the university sphere has also contributed to the phenomenon, such as the Escola de Noves Tecnologies Interactives de la Universitat de Barcelona (ENTI-UB), which was a pioneer and today has been followed by six more universities with the same video game studies in the fields of programming, art, virtual reality, and gamification.
Many professionals and entrepreneurs from all over the world got to know the capital of Catalonia thanks to MobileBut the most decisive has been the Gamelab. Ivan Fernández Lobo and Gonzo Suárez, one from Gijón and the other from Madrid, but linked in one way or another to Barcelona, have preferred to locate their video game congress in Barcelona. They have not lacked attractive proposals from the capital of the kingdom and, unlike many Catalan companies and entrepreneurs, they have chosen to stay in our home even when their interlocutors here had disappeared due to the suspension of the Govern.
Both have their lives in Madrid, but, paradoxically, both have a special relationship with Catalonia. Gonzo Suárez is the son of the great filmmaker Gonzalo Suárez and lived an important part of his adolescence in Barcelona. Iván Fernández Lobo's father worked for many years in Berguedà. Gamelab was born in 2005, but in 2011 it was already established in Barcelona by express wish of its promoters and thanks to the work carried out by Fèlix Riera from the Institut Català de les Empreses culturals.
Gamelab is a congress for entrepreneurs, designers and specialized press in video games and is considered one of the most important in the world. The leading figures in the sector attend this event. Figures such as Ilka Paananen from Supercell; the Nordic company Counter Strike; Debbie Bestwick, executive director of Team 17, the most important publisher in the world, or Phil Spencer, executive vice president of Gaming at Microsoft, demonstrate the importance of this congress.
Gamelab is a congress for entrepreneurs, designers and specialized press in video games and is considered one of the most important in the worldBefore the pandemic, Gamelab brought together an average of 1,500 people, at a conservative estimate. It is an event that has already accumulated ten editions in Barcelona and that, often, has had a low profile in the general press, but not in the specialized press. The media spotlight is taken by NiceOne, which is monopolized by large companies such as Nintendo or Sony, among others, and is open to all audiences. But its effect on attracting companies, capital and talent to Barcelona is very minor, not to say insignificant. The differentiating factor is Gamelab: entrepreneurs, designers,publishersand specialized press from all origins land in Barcelona and it is here where the attractiveness of our city and itshinterlandcomes into operation.
In a country and its capital where a part of the published opinion is installed in the litany of decadence, it is worth following the growth of the technological and digital sector, especially in the field of video game design. This growth, however, would have been much smaller without Gamelab. Thanks to two residents of Madrid who trusted Barcelona and its potential.
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