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Press release:
April 17, 2019 – According to information collected by Neogames Finland Association, the Finnish game industry employs more than 3,000 gaming professionals for the first time.

The Finnish game industry celebrates the traditional The Finnish Game Awards gala in Helsinki on April 25th.

The Finnish game industry now has about 3,200 employees, of which as many as 27 per cent are from abroad.

The total number of employees has increased by about 16 per cent in two years and the number of foreigners by as much as 75 per cent. Finnish game studios believe that more than 500 jobs will be created in the next two years.

“The growth in jobs and the number of foreign workers is significant and proves that Finland is globally a highly attractive games industry hub and, to a certain extent, the availability of experienced professionals locally has been and still is one of the biggest challenges to the Finnish game industry,” says KooPee Hiltunen, director of Neogames.

Another notable finding is that in 2018 the number of new games published was around 100 compared to 150-200 games per year previously.

This is mainly an outcome of the increased popularity of the game as service -model. Studios concentrate on developing their existing games rather than launching new ones. Only five out of the 30 biggest game studios launched a new game in 2018.

“The Finnish game industry has become more professional and well established. The industry has matured to be more than two billion Euro annual business. However, it has become clear from interviews with game studios that this level of stability are seen as a stepping store to new growth, and not as a satisfactory achievement. The industry remains dynamic,” continues Hiltunen.

A comprehensive report on the game industry can be downloaded from the Neogames website at http://www.neogames.fi/finnish-game-industry-report-2018/.

The Finnish Game Awards
The Finnish Game Awards gala evening, organised by the Finnish Game Developers’ Association and NeoGames Finland Association, will be arranged in Helsinki on April 27th. It has several award categories such as Game of the Year, Creative Achievement of the Year and for the first time Comeback of the Year.

The Comeback of the Year Award has been created to meet the industry’s shift towards services. This award can be won by a game or game studio that has succeeded in reviving something that has already been published.

This year’s nominees can be found at https://www.neogames.fi/fga-2019/. The gala’s live video stream can be followed from the same link. All winners and their photos will also be published on the site on April 25th at 22:00 CET. The Award night can be followed with the social media tag #fga19.

The Finnish Game Awards is sponsored by Fingersoft, Rovio, Remedy Entertainment, Small Giant Games, Supercell, Colossal Order, Ubisoft RedLynx, Dodreams, Seriously Entertainment and Futureplay Games as afterparty sponsor.

Jonas “O.J” Ek
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround