Game Dev in the Netherlands was at an impasse due to the lack of gaming conferences
The cancellation of three important conferences in the Netherlands jeopardizes the country’s gaming industry. The Dutch edition of Control writes about the problem.
In 2018, the Unite Europe and European Control Conference and the Dutch Game Awards were not held in the Netherlands. The reason is the exorbitant costs of such events. The gaming industry in the Netherlands is small, according to the publication, and local developers simply do not have the funds to hold annual events. And this entails great difficulties for game developers in the Netherlands.
Unity Europe 2017
Firstly, Unite Europe and similar events helped attract large publishers to the Netherlands.
In particular, such giants as Nintendo, Valve and Sony used to participate in conferences. And the Dutch Game Awards were also useful because its winners could post information about the award on their Steam page.
Secondly, the conferences helped to establish cooperation with the authorities. The Dutch authorities don’t know much about the gaming industry. Only the problems of loot boxes and gambling addiction are covered in local media. It was possible to attract the attention of the government to the game rendezvous only by introducing them directly to the developers and their products. Unite Europe and the Control Conference were best suited for this.
But this year the developers of the Netherlands got into a vicious circle:
- the government is not interested in the industry and does not issue subsidies;
- developers cannot organize new conferences without subsidies;
- without conferences, it is not possible to attract the attention of the government.
Dutch Game Awards 2016
Control also compares the situation in the Netherlands with what is happening in Germany.
This year, Unite Europe was held in Berlin (and TwitchCon will also take place in this city in the spring). Publishers come to Germany, politicians interact with the local gaming association, which does not miss the opportunity to introduce them to game development.
And in the end it pays off. Recall that last month the German authorities allocated € 50 million to create a fund for the development of the gaming industry. This was the first time that the German game dev received financial support at the state level.
By the way, the White Nights 2019 gaming business conference will be held in Berlin.
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