Spanish government historically commits to supporting national video games sector as strategic industry

Last week, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has personally expressed the support of the national government for the country’s video games industry. He recognized the leading role of the video games sector in the digital economy both from the cultural and industrial standpoint.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Image credit: AEVI

The significance of this lies in the fact that video games are specifically included in the recovery program for the Spanish economy called Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. Among other things, the Plan aims to “position Spain as a reference center for the video game sector, by promoting the recruitment of investors and talent, by simplifying requirements and by promoting the ecosystem of companies and professionals in the area of production in Spanish and other languages.”

The presentation of the program was attended by José María Moreno, president and general director of the Spanish Association of Video Games (AEVI).

Over the last couple of months, AEVI has been calling on the government to support the video game sector through the extension of tax incentives enjoyed by other cultural industries to the production of video games. Hopefully, now that the government has recognized the strategic importance of the video games sector, it’s not long before the Spanish publishers and developers begin to see the resulting changes.