Each year, the Czech Republic hosts several gaming conferences that bring together countless game developers and studios from all over the world. This weekend we had the opportunity to see GDS in Praguewhich also published data from the Czech Game Developers Association (GDA), which deals with the gaming industry in the Czech Republic. You can read about how it all looked on our website in the coming days. However, now we would like to take a look at the published data.
THE GAME INDUSTRY IS DEVELOPING FAST WITH US
Turnover is an important and very positive indicator for the Czech gaming industry. It has grown by 33% from 2020 to 2021. – from 5.33 billion kroons to 7.11. This is mainly due to the coronavirus crisis, which has forced people to stay at home and spend more money on video games. Estimated increase however this year it is much lower, and only 6%. The GDA bases its assessment on the war in Ukraine, rising energy prices and the fact that the just-mentioned coronavirus crisis has subsided. However, turnover should continue to grow.
Profits go hand in hand with growth in turnover. From 2020 to 2021, it increased by 14% to 2.08 billion crowns. Given the turnover of 7.11 billion, these are very good numbers. It is logical that the Czech Republic benefits from them. Last year, the income tax of Czech gambling companies rose to 395 million kroons. At the same time, it is fundamentally export industry – more than 95% of products are sent to the world market.
THE GAME INDUSTRY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC DOES NOT RECEIVE STATE SUPPORT
Despite the fact that the gambling sector is beneficial to the state, it receives minimal support from this side in the long term. The state is unable to provide European subsidies for Czech game studios and failed to focus on the game industry or his own innovation subsidy programs. According to the mayor of Prague, Zdeněk Hřib, they were more general in nature and did not concern the cultural and creative industry, namely video games. Several options for helping the Czech gaming industry were discussed at the press conference, but none of them seemed significant to us. You can watch the full entry below.
However, as Martin Fryvaldsky of Warhorse Studios pointed out, the major Czech game studios are not lobbying for subsidies, but above all simplification of various processeswhich, for example, would facilitate the recruitment of new employees. Moreover, these processes are applicable to industries other than gaming. This entire section can be found in the entry below at 25:20.
LABOR AND EDUCATIONAL INSUFFICIENCY
Another issue that currently remains unresolved is education in this area. Only 20.4% of respondents said they had graduated from college. 67.7% got their knowledge from online sources and 63.7% from peers. This just indicates that the field of game development is not yet very developed in our country, and even if it begins to appear in some schools, its popularization is still very slow.
If you were then wondering what positions are most in demand in the gaming industry, then the results probably won’t surprise you. In the first place is the position of a programmer with 30%, in the second and third place is a graphic artist and animator with about 20%. While management, PR and manufacturing professions are at the very bottom with 9%. However, this is still a lot, and game developers in the Czech Republic are in great demand. Not only for the reasons mentioned, but also because they are sorely lacking, which is why game studios are also recruiting in large numbers from abroad. 38.5% of gaming employees in the Czech Republic are foreigners., with almost 20% coming from countries outside the European Union. Foreign developers most often come from Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, Russia and the USA (in no particular order).
Source :Indian TV
