The City of Malmö is providing millions in new funds to enable Minc and Game Habitat to jointly develop Malmö’s games industry. The development of a new game innovation program and an investment structure is already in full swing.
The new funding from the City of Malmö, starting this year, amounts to 3,6 million SEK per year. It’s a major new investment in games.
– The new funds constitute one of the largest efforts in games in Sweden, and is a significant increase in the City’s funding compared to previous years. This is a major step up in the City's ambition to position itself within the games industry, says Peter Lübeck, CEO of Game Habitat.
Following several staff cuts in Malmö, the short-term goal of the new effort is to retain the world-class talent that exists in the city by supporting game developers who want to start their own games companies. Long term, the goal is to develop new game companies with 15-50 employees and to have more companies founded by women and non-binary people.
“Companies that hire and grow rapidly”
– We want to see growth companies with significant turnover as they leave our program. We will challenge entrepreneurs to dare raise their ambitions. We want to see companies that hire and grow rapidly, says Tomas de Souza, CEO of Minc.
Recruitment of a Portfolio Manager for games is currently underway. The new hire will be responsible for designing the new game innovation program together with existing staff at Game Habitat and Minc. In parallel with the new program, a new investment structure specifically for the games industry will also be created in order to make capital available to new and existing regional game startup companies.
Entrepreneurial spirit and world-class talent
– The games industry globally is in transition, with this initiative we expect Malmö to emerge from this period stronger than ever. It will take a few years for game companies starting up now to get their games on the market, but once they are released, we will have a new billion kronor success from Malmö, says Peter Lübeck, CEO of Game Habitat.
There is a strong entrepreneurial spirit among Malmö's game developers. When Game Habitat conducted surveys, about a quarter of respondents said they wish to start their own game company. The strong entrepreneurial spirit combined with world-class local talent provides good conditions for the new effort.
The new effort coincides with Game Habitat and Minc moving in together. Starting April 1 this year, Game Habitat will move into Minc's premises before the two organizations jointly move to new premises at Media Evolution in Malmö.