• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Italian games industry @ Gamescom 2016

D

DarkCronos

Member
I rarely post on GAF but i haven't seen any discussions about this.

I'm italian and for ages i've been absolutely saddened by the state of our industry, which has always been, with a couple of exceptions, an absolute joke.Yet things are starting to change, and in the last few years we're seeing more and more interesting projects coming from my country.

This year the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, the Italian Trade Agency ICE and AESVI, the Italian Games Trade Body,are bringin more than 20 italian-developed games to Gamescom, and it's a pretty solid selection, color me impressed!

Here's a montage trailer

You can find more info at this link
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Kind of a rough selection of games, though hopefully it'll at least act as inroads thing, allow some of the devs to network and whatnot.

Lone Wolf isn't too shabby. I do wonder why it appears to be what they are bringing though given it's age. New content? Or maybe a new platform port.
 
B

Badoink

Banned
That's kinda interesting. What's the reason behind poor game-dev output in Italy? It's the 4th biggest economy in EU and even Poland is waaay ahead of you. Same in esports - literally nothing from Italy. Do you have Internet there?
 
R

RexNovis

Banned
Actually laughed out loud at the sight of the giant farming combine simulator machine.

Other than that yea it's cool to see Italy jumping in especially with all the VR focused titles. Seems to be a lot of excitement in the EU around VR in general.
 
F

FelipeMGM

Member
I was hoping we would see what Ovosonico is up to at this year's Gamescom, but I guess not. Hoping for a PGW reveal then
 
G

G.ZZZ

Member
Badoink said:
That's kinda interesting. What's the reason behind poor game-dev output in Italy? It's the 4th biggest economy in EU and even Poland is waaay ahead of you. Same in esports - literally nothing from Italy. Do you have Internet there?
Click to expand...

People don't really care about video games. The VG market is small and is literally only FIFA and PES. Also no, internet don't exist here.
 
D

DarkCronos

Member
Badoink said:
That's kinda interesting. What's the reason behind poor game-dev output in Italy? It's the 4th biggest economy in EU and even Poland is waaay ahead of you. Same in esports - literally nothing from Italy. Do you have Internet there?
Click to expand...

it's a combination of various things.

first, you're right, we have really bad internet connections. Not only slow and unreliable, but due to the geographical complexity of the italian territory, there is a huge digital divide.

then it's not easy to do business in Italy. Italy is literally a burocratic hell, with heavy taxation too. So the big AAA players have no interest in opening italian studios (only Ubisoft has a studio in Milan, they mostly do Just Dance stuff) and for little, indie developers trying to create games in Italy is suicidal. Things are starting to change, but at a really slow pace.

then, until a few years ago, if you wanted to learn how to make videogames in Italy you had to go abroad or learn on your own. There were no courses or degrees in the field. Again things are starting to change and in the last two or three years are born quite a few courses, both academic and non-academic

then there's a cultural problem. Videogames in Italy are still seen by the general public either as a silly thing for kids, or the source of all evils in our society. You wouldn't believe how our TV news are depicting the Pokémon Go craze. Personally i've met more than one complete stranger outside who insulted me for playing Pokemon Go, telling me that at my age i should be "catching pussies, not imaginary things" (despite the fact that my girlfriend was beside me, playing the game too).
 
T

T.O.P

Banned
DarkCronos said:
You wouldn't believe how our TV news are depicting the Pokémon Go craze. Personally i've met more than one complete stranger outside who insulted me for playing Pokemon Go, telling me that at my age i should be "catching pussies, not imaginary things" (despite the fact that my girlfriend was beside me, playing the game too).
Click to expand...
bguUScN.jpg


Yup
 
2

2+2=5

The Amiga Brotherhood
Wow, most of them looks legit interesting
i hope to be in next year's trailer! I'm trying to do a game.
 
Necro900

Necro900

Member
DarkCronos said:
then it's not easy to do business in Italy. Italy is literally a burocratic hell, with heavy taxation too. So the big AAA players have no interest in opening italian studios (only Ubisoft has a studio in Milan, they mostly do Just Dance stuff) and for little, indie developers trying to create games in Italy is suicidal. Things are starting to change, but at a really slow pace.
Click to expand...

This, more than anything else.
When there's sound economic investment in something, all other cultural factors are relatively minor. The real issue is that if you start a business here, either a one-person business or a small sized enterprise, you're basically screwed for more than half your income, as you watch your money go to the state government.

I see more and more people getting into game development here, but I can't say I'm confident there'll be any variation in taxation in the foreseeable future.
It gets worse, if anything: as a freelance professional, any variation would impact me as well, and every change has been for the worse until now.

When the reality of all this will dawn on these people, I'm sure many of them will migrate towards greener fields, and even though it's sad, I really cannot blame them.

Nice to meet you, ItaliaGAF!
 
B

Bliddo

Member
Badoink said:
That's kinda interesting. What's the reason behind poor game-dev output in Italy? It's the 4th biggest economy in EU and even Poland is waaay ahead of you. Same in esports - literally nothing from Italy. Do you have Internet there?
Click to expand...
The bureaucracy is insane. I have a software startup based in Italy, I'm the CEO so I spend quite a bit of time dealing with paper trails and idiots, and it's revolting.
The law never caught up with the software industry: the employee contract is based on the metalworker's contract, if you sell software as a service you need to behave like you are selling physical goods in a physical store, the possible ramifications of certain laws are just plain terrifying. Factoring in astonishingly high taxes, and the constant fear of a screw up since the law is so complex and obtuse that even your accountant has a hard time figuring out.
Yeah it's lovely. I heartily recommend it.
 
P

pLow7

Member
Don't know if it's an major Part, but the Weather might also play a big Role.
Having mostly sunny days people prefer going to the beach rather than staying home and playing games.
 
K

Kasper

Member
pLow7 said:
Don't know if it's an major Part, but the Weather might also play a big Role.
Having mostly sunny days people prefer going to the beach rather than staying home and playing games.
Click to expand...

Yeah, just look at California, there's hardly any developers at all!

I doubt weather has much of an effect on either devs or players.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Korea to focus on fostering console game industry over next 5 years: culture ministry
News 2
59
3K
ButchCat replied
[FT] UK gaming industry: winning friends
0
308
cormack12 replied
Mental health is a problem in the games industry
2 3
131
7K
cash_longfellow replied
Now vs. Then: For those who've worked IN the Gaming industry, what were your experiences like?
30
1K
Rat Rage replied
The gaming industry is overdue for a crash to reset the market
2 3 4
158
6K
FunkMiller replied
Top Bottom