The Czech Game Developers Association (GDA) presented its results for the past year at a press conference as part of the GDS Prague 2023 event.
For example, we learned that there are currently 155 game studios operating in the Czech Republic, with about a dozen more being added every year. However, three quarters of them are smaller (up to 10 people). Large firms with more than 250 employees make up only 1% of the total number of companies. By age, studies based on three to ten years ago predominate. 54% of all studios are located in Prague, the next largest center is Brno with 21%.
At the beginning of 2023, 2,634 people worked in the Czech gaming industry. Compared to the previous year, this is an increase of approximately 300 workers, but many more jobs are being created, this year’s estimate is set at 430. According to the head of the GDA, Pavel Barak, this is a long-term problem for the Czech gaming industry, which was also caused by the fact that , apparently, gaming companies in the Czech Republic have not suffered at all from the mass layoffs that we can see in companies abroad. On the contrary, they continue to search for new forces.
Almost two thirds of the employees are Czech, the rest are foreigners, mainly from Poland, the USA, Slovakia, Ukraine or the Netherlands. The most common positions are programmers and graphic designers. In terms of gender, men remain dominant at 82%. More than half of the workers are between 26 and 35 years old. People with higher education most often work in industry, but people with secondary education lag behind them by a small margin. However, most people have received their own education in game development from online sources or from peers, and only 20% of workers have formal education in the field.
In terms of turnover, the forecast for this year is CZK 7.6 billion, which would be a slight increase from CZK 7.52 billion in the previous year. The vast majority of revenue comes from overseas (98%), with the largest markets being the US, UK, France, Germany and China. In 2022, a total of 60 Czech games, 11 DLCs and around 200 games or student projects were released.
According to the GDA, the problem is also insufficient support from the state, which should change in the coming years thanks to the upcoming creation of the State Audiovisual Fund, which, unlike the State Cinematography Fund, will include video games.
Source :Indian TV
