Panel: Barcelona Rising: Emergence of A Global Hub For The Games Industry.

Heat. Heat. All right, guys. Please take a seat. And I'm going to hand over to a good friend of mine uh and a games industry legend uh Zavia uh who is going to talk about um yeah Barcelona Rising.
Thank you. Uh hello everyone. Uh Buenos Das um BIA uh we're going to be talking uh

today about um Barcelona ecosystem. So if you were on previous panel they were talking about Spain and now we're getting a little bit uh drilling down to Barcelona. So a lot of things from the panel before are are the same here, but I think Barcelona ecosystem has some unique um uh specificities and and opportunities that we want to cover here. So when people talk now about gaming hubs like London, Stockholm, Montreal or Helsinki, um Barcelona is now popping up as in that conversation, right? So over the last two decades, the city has been one of the most dynamic uh game development ecosystem in Europe. It's combining worldclass talent, international studios, entrepreneurship, creativity, unique quality of life. Uh Barcelona is not only attracting uh companies and investment. It's producing game technology careers having impact on big

IPs around the world and global success stories. Uh today want to explore what makes this ecosystem special, what are the opportunities and what challenge we still need to overcome. Uh can Barcelona become one of Europe's uh lead hub in in the interactive and gaming industry? How do we retain talent, create more original IPs? Uh how we scale local studios and continue attracting global investments? It's a lot to cover. Uh more importantly, what should be the next chapter? So let's dive into that conversation with our great panelist. Uh they are a genuine representation of Barcelona ecosystem. We have really indie studios. So really you're you're the tiniest in in in the value chain. We have now double A studios uh born and and and grown in Barcelona. We have then uh multinational companies. So this partner has been organized in collaboration with Deviat which is a Catalan game software association. So uh

I will ask you when you ask answer the first question to do a small intro on yourself right so let's start with you know Barcelona is Europe most complete gaming e ecosystem so what makes Barcelona more than a collection of studio and you know and it really a true game ecosystem So hello everyone. Something right next to Chavia. I'm going to be the first one answering that. So my name is Yori. I'm the studio manager of Ubisoft Basa mobile. I've been leading the studio for 13 years now. So it's quite a quite a right. Um so I think like to answer that question that that we have this huge ecosystem. We have a huge talent pipeline. It's like a whole stack that we have in Boston. The universities being able like to fool talent into the industry. We have a large ind scene. We

have committees. We have a studios from all sizes. Actually, yeah, we probably will cover that later on. There's a gap between small and that's that was covered in the previous panel. There's a gap between small studios and how to grow to the from the 10 people team to the 100 or 50 people. there is a gap there but actually yeah it's a huge ecosystem like um which is yeah it's that we have like plenty of things uh that f the industry
okay I'm Alexis Corinas I'm from Piccolo Studio with a uh small studio I mean we're now 40 people it's not small for you know for the standards 10 years ago I think I I will talk a lot about our company and the process we've done because I think It's a good metaphor of what has happened to Barcelona in the last 10 years. We were we started this company 10 years ago. We were like, you know, we we were called Piccolo because we wanted to do small things, which is something that it's very uh typical from

Barcelona. I think it's it's it's the city with most small companies in all Europe. But we need to change. We need to shift this mentality. We we need to get bigger. We need to get more ambitious. We started with uh 10 people doing small indie narrative games, you know, very artistic, very, you know, to move people, to make them cry, to make them and we changed. We have grown a lot. We we are now 40 and we're now working on a double A yet unannounced. I can speak a lot about it, but it's a double A game for a Korean company, which is the investor of the company. We are looking for the Ashian market. So I when I talk and and it's PC and consoles only because it's what we know. So when I talk I will use this journey to illustrate the changes that Barcelona ecosystem has entered and and what we need to do towards the future.
Thank you. So my name is Yolanda. I'm

the HR director at GameLo Barcelona. So um Gamelo is a multinational. uh we've been in Barcelona for 26 years already. So we know very well the city and how it evolved uh from 26 years ago till uh nowadays. And uh in fact um one of the things that uh we've seen a lot uh in the last years is even uh like with a big market what uh what we've uh been experiencing is that for example we have a lot of uh help from from the government. they really care about our industry and and and they are trying to help the industry as much as possible to to continue growing in our in in Barcelona and in Catalonia in general. So it's it's a a great relief to have this backup always. At the same time um we also have as as we said previously um um a lot of associations that we are

trying to push a lot in the right direction like Devikat is doing. Uh but we also have clusters and and and it's really not only uh gaming but also all the synergies that we can create together with the rest of the technological hubs. Um which is important as well because we nourish each other about different talent uh which enriches a lot uh the the creativity that uh that we are implementing into our games because once you take talent from different industries it really uh pays off when when you are creating. So this is just u various of the of the of the of the advantages that we have here in Barcelona, but I think we we can continue talking about that during the panel.
Okay. Thank you. I agree with all what they said. [laughter] My name is Beatatrice Ouro. Um I'm the co-founder of a really small studio. We

are two people. And um what I can say about Barcelona, I've been in many uh uh cities in in Spain with all the bands. I've been in Malaga and Bilbao, Madrid and I think in Barcelona has the power of the ecosystem people. Here you have debat that uh make these talks in order to connect all the developers and the studios and and for a small studio like me it's perfect because you can they can share uh their experiences uh you can they can tell you you know the right person to talk if you need something in specific and because there are 260 uh studios in Barcelona there is a lot of people that you can talk to. Uh besides that uh the government as she said uh helped so much

all the time studios because we don't have the same uh uh finance finance like the triple A but um Barcelona I believe besides just the gamer part is always uh is well the design uh AI I startups uh is a huge uh ecosystem that you can get information and get innovation as well and I will say that no
good so I mean I think a strong work is ecosystem so it's a combination of elements so right it's different diversity of studios it's the universities the government other ecosystem AI we've seen startups we're seeing some um interest on you know finance we have people coming from Asia just to invest in Barcelona right so

let's move to uh another pawn which is IP I think it's very interested we we've I say starting saying that Barcelona is having influence in one the most uh powerful IP so James Bond was just announced by interactive asphalt has been doing here for years hungry shark has been there uh We have um uh Overwatch uh Candy Crush, we have uh Call of Duty. So really the CD as an influence on the word and it's doing impact but at the same time so that's a phase of doing working on big IPs internationally. The other one is the creation of IPS, right? So I think uh that's very interesting as well because that's the other one and on previous discussion we're talking oh you know do you need big teams to create IPs but what we're seeing is that normally smaller studios they're the most

creative right they're the most it's a way for big companies to the risk and you have people trying things so we have two two I mean we have examples here on the two sides so I would like the panel to talk one on the IP creation and the other on on what it is to why are we developing IPs here um uh you know that have an um international impact Alexis you start okay yeah we we we create our own IPs and uh as I said we're now doing a game uh for Craftton which is a a Korean publisher you you you may know it by PUBG and for us it was always important to create our own IPs uh we believe uh that this is is is the way to grow. But as I said before and I'm going to divert a bit uh here in Barcelona we have uh a lot of background in audiovisisual and

communication and expertise. I I spent 20 years working as a creative in advertising before creating uh a video game company with my two partners with the three of us. We spent 20 years doing creative things. So we know the importance of being creative that the seat of the idea right what what makes you know things move and we are living a a moment in which there's a lot of offer in the market and it's getting crowded. There are there were 15,000 games published last year. That's crazy. So I think one of the the more important things Barcelona has to offer is the the cultural background we have had for years and years in audio visuals in communication in narrative in you know I mean like one week ago how many of you watched the Sagamilia you know inauguration we we we put a show we put a show on the Olympics we we come from

this background and this is something that we have to to use to our favor and of course we need experience, right? We need people from abroad to come here to Barcelona to help us uh create things. I mean, and you are experts on that. Okay. But we need to, you know, to take advantage of this. We have the best uh graphic design uh creatives of Europe. We we have had for many years, we have a lot of people that has a lot of uh experience on creating uh innovation, right? we we we have been a city that has been related to innovation in terms of creativity and I think it's the most important asset to have right now. So I think it's easier to find funding and to find experience from abroad and you know integrate it here. We have always been uh you know an ecosystem that it quickly integrates other cultures right we and we also we look to the west and we can look to the east and it's important we have you know

more than 50% of the market right now it's east market right and and a lot of times we are just like obsessed on doing the same typical products for the western market and that's a mistake we have to you know widen or you and we need to adapt and we need to adapt all this very quickly. So for me it's very important that this very you know that this creativity spark that we have here at Barcelona is put to good use. Right. So okay so I can speak um [clears throat] regarding two different uh experiences because uh at Camel Barcelona we work on uh asphalt. This is our own franchise. So uh we know uh very well what means to drive uh the creativity of the IP because it's kind of uh more free I mean you have more freedom when you decide on your own IP it's different on the other

side for example we also have worked with IPS external IPs like Disney for example and we created Disney's peacetorm for example to and we worked with them and previously we worked with illumination when we were uh creating minion rush for example so It's two completely different experiences. Nothing to do one with the other because it's not the same to follow a path that is marked by by the IP than uh creating your own IP, your own identity. This marks a a complete difference. But at the same time I think uh together and also to link with what my colleague was saying uh even if we have all the all the experience and all the creativity uh in other markets I think we've been evolving a lot lately in um knowing how to read the video game uh market as well because it evolves a lot super fast and I think we realized some time ago and now I think we are like um racing a lot

in sense uh that this is a business. Of course, this is creativity. This is uh passion for video games and and uh we want to translate ideas into that we are passionate about into realities. But we also know and we learned that this is a business and we need to pay attention to what our communities want. Uh how the market is evolving now. Do we need more mobile games or do we need more console games or do we need crossplatform games? So we are really um like very trained and and very experienced on that so far and in that sense I think we are starting to take the right decisions in the right direction to make it grow. Yeah, I wanted to like something on on that front because IP creation I think is the way to go. Is it where the compound of interest is is is made. Work for hire is probably the resort that smaller studios might have in order like to keep the lights on and to pay the

bills which which is understandable. But actually uh especially for big publishers, you might see that um that they are not risking on creating new IP. they are doubling down on the big IPs because creating a big IP an IP an IP and a franchise is is no it's no small feat I mean you have like to invest lots of money in order to make sure that this IP is well known in the market that is um that that that you create this awareness so that's um and I do understand that that that that might be difficult especially for small studios and one thing that we have that we have in Barcelona is that we have at least demonstrated to the market that we are able like to operate big IPS that we have hung, we have Haspel, we have we have other big publishers in the in the in the in the city in a local ecosystem like being able to serve a global market which with big IPS is yet to be seen which is something that I would like like to see especially as a as a Spanier as a Catalonian is to see like big IPS

being born in in in the city which is which is if I'm not mistaken yet to be seen. Okay. And the tiny one here. [laughter] Uh the only the only thing that we do is just to create IP. All our games, you know, is our ideas, our design, what we really want to do. You know, there is no one telling you what to have to do. Uh there is no restrictions, but it's always a risk. No. Um for us we have I didn't say but uh we do narrative games. We started out mobile games and now we're doing PC and some console. We have launched uh five games. Now we are doing the sixth one and what I can say about that it's it's

tough but uh with is our IP and that is going to uh it's going to go forever you know and like us there is another uh studio they're doing so well and they're tiny like a PIP studio that now is nominated for a PAFA there's uh NMA No, no name. No studio. Yeah. Which ne Greece and and Nea that you know as well. Which one is um they they are like seven or eight now. They're doing so well creating their own IP and launching their game by themselves.
Good. So um we've been seeing um you know creativity. We've been seeing like uh you know how design how the comic industry how the industrial design has been and how Barcelona is a creative city. So how we operate IP and how we create IP. So now we need people to do

that right and and I think again talking about the ecosystem. So you have young studio very creative and then international are bringing uh senior people more trained that know how to operate. So there is a and we're seeing I mean all our company we have people from each other and that's another positive effect right is that u people being able to move in the ecosystem from one company to another it's enriching and having different experience so let's talk about talent right so um why is Barcelona a great place to you know let's touch point like local talent let's start how we attract talent how we retain talent and anything you want about talent so you want to start maybe Yolanda though.
Yeah, that's my highlight. [laughter] Um so um this is also something that we need to adapt from uh 10 years ago to now for example. But what we did very well it's years ago we read we read very well the the market and we said okay

everything we are hiring we are hiding abroad like outside. So why don't create our own talent here locally. So we started to develop uh training programs at universities and now we have a lot and they are amazing. They are there are some universities that are like more broaden and that they they are like um having different degrees and different masters and different uh postgraduates uh in different uh areas. All others are like specializing a lot on design for example or on development. So you we we know very well at this point I need this kind of profile where I need to go to find that uh but we also nourish ourselves with people from the from from outside still uh because we are creating a lot of companies here in Barcelona and uh and and we need a lot of talent. We really uh need need that. So just for you to have an idea, one uh like uh more

than a third part of the total population that is working in the gaming industry in Barcelona has come from other countries. So it's international talent and then two out of three part is like internal talent like uh local talent that we've been building through training at this point but also through experience. I mean we have game love 26 years digital legends I think this is your 25th
25th yeah
25th year like uh we have uh studios that we've been like chabi said uh we've been like uh people that has been working at digital legends for some time and then they came to game love and then they go to to Piccolo they go to another studio and that's that's what enrich a lot experience because working with different people with different ways of working this is what creates ecosystem like it's good that people can like go around different um different uh

companies and this is what we also encourage our our employees to do at some point. I mean 25% of the employees at game love personal has been there for more than 10 years and at some point if they come to us and they tell us look I think it's an it's a a moment for me to go to another place of course I mean go go ahead look other things like experience other ways of working other ways of creating and then of course you can come back later on if you want so this is what enriches us like having having like uh external talent mixed with local talent. Um, and the v the variety of companies that you can encounter, mobile, PC console, um, indie, uh, multinational, um, medium studios, you can have a lot of variety and then you can create a a really really good experience in Barcelona.

Hello. Um well one thing that I wanted to mention that for sure that we we benefit each other like for the polonization I would try like for people like moving from a studio for another well but one thing for sure is that I don't want people leaving my studio [laughter] so we work hard in order to make sure that they are they happy in in the studio but you know uh some professional changes sometimes people might decide like to leave u to other studio and they're free to go and then they are they're welcome to come back um and actually one And one of the strengths of some of the studios and actually I would say that this is one of our core strengths is that even though uh we are Ubisoft since in 2013 we go back to 2000 with micro jobs like back in the day and actually we still have three of the co-ounders in the studio actually that that is again a component having a very core talent that stays in order like to um be the pillar the cornerstone of the studio in order like to be able like to when There is the new highest and and

actually they are welcome like to bring their new fresh ideas. We value a lot the cultural studios that that's something that we you only can have by having people stay for for quite some time. So yeah, retention for for us is key. Yeah.
Okay. what that people said is great but when they are you know want to move and they don't want to go uh work again for a company and they want to do a freelance work I'm here
so um we have so much talent because even though there were two when we make a game we we grew up like 10 to 12 and we just work with freelancers and those freelancers come from those companies and they are really good well trained So um for us is uh is perfect because it's so easy to work with that kind of people that know how to work. They have been you know and all the process they know you know how the market uh works.

Um all of them are in the vertical. So the programmer is like you know we we always we usually go for two programmers, three or four uh designers uh one musician um yeah like 10 and that talent come from all these companies usually all the freelancers.
Yeah. Thank you very much guys.
[laughter]
So yeah, it's I think it's it's surprising to hear I mean that it doesn't seem to be difficult to h to look for talent, right? So which you know you might hear something different outside. So where where I mean again multinationals how easy it is for you to attract foreign talent, right? How how and is is Barcelona easier? Is is what what make people easy? I mean what how do you convince people to change a

country and to move to move here?
Um well actually the the background law actually helps a lot especially for for experts with like a huge salary because you know this flat fee is is very finial for five years if I'm not mistaken. Um so that helps a lot. Uh actually uh the quality of life is uh there's a gap um when you see like other countries in Europe. But it's true that at some point like huge salaries in other talent hubs the quality of life is not yet enough like to cover that that gap that you might see like if someone is offered like two times higher salary in other like tech in Europe or in the US. So yeah, the be law helps and yeah and actually at the end of the day regarding talent um something that I always like push a lot when I'm doing like the final interview is uh is it's not just the

ambition but the the the you know like being part of something that like which is bigger than yourself. the type of game that we are doing it's a it's something that if you are able like to attract talent like to convince them that the game that they are going to work on is something that they are going to be fulfilled by working on it yeah you have like it's it's like half of the work like to attract talent
well one of the things that um we use a lot is basically the ecosystem so it's not the same to attract someone to come to a place where it's like uh okay, I'm going to encounter there a couple of uh in a couple of companies and uh maybe one school doing some uh programs uh training programs, but here it's kind of okay, come here to Barcelona. I understand it's an investment and it's a risk that you are taking because it's uh moving with your family sometimes or moving alone. But anyway, it's a risk

because you are taking a new job and you don't know how it's going to go. But what they know for sure and what they and what we try to uh to make them understand is that there are plenty of opportunities. So it's an investment to come to Barcelona basically because it can work in our company or not or maybe you discover that you don't like exactly uh the way we are creating the games or the IP we are uh working on but then you are going to have a lot of opportunities to become I don't know a professor at the university or uh I don't know uh in another company in another project in another it's uh it's really really full of opportunities and and this is attraction by itself. Uh it's self-explanatory. [laughter]
Okay. Um we have just two things to bring talent. Okay. Is one time flexibility. So you can work in one more

than one project, more than one game. So um so you can do three or three two or three games at the same time. and our product, our game. They have to like our game. If they like our game, it's like I don't I know that I'm gonna earn so much money here, but I want to be part of it. So, that's the only thing that we can, you know, tell people to to work with us.
Uh in our case, uh everybody that works at Picloids from Spain. It it it just work like that. But it's interesting that 12 years ago when we were planning the company, it was very hard for us at the beginning to find professionals. I mean, we work on PC and consoles market which is uh smaller than the mobile market and Barcelona started to be a hub for games for mobile games before being a hub for PC and consoles games. So, it was even more difficult to find people.

So when we created Piccolo, out of the 10 people that we signed, nine of them had been at Tequila, Mercury's team or Digital Legends, right? So because there were the the companies that did this kind of product. So there there was no one else. And we have seen on this 12 years uh a great change. Now I mean I think that 65% of our companies people that live abroad in Spain, right? not at Barcelona and but we have a lot of uh young people from Barcelona and we have seen how how has evolved you know the formation of people we have people that come from Ubisoft and and it's great for us to have people with this experience it didn't happen before and there's people from our company has gone to other companies big companies and and some of them come back as you said and that's that's great for us we we I mean of course we want to retain talent. But if the talent moves

and can move in a in a ecosystem, that's great. That's that's one of the healthier signs you have because yeah, I know I will lose some talent, but I will get some, you know, it's easier to find them. And for us it's it's it's very important for the kind of product that we do that uh we have you know people in the same time zone and with the same cultural back background but we have uh also people that's from Barcelona that come from other countries right they live in Barcelona now what they are Portuguese German French that established here some years ago maybe some of these companies and they have you know they are here still because they believe in in Barcelona, right? I mean, of course, it's important. In the previous panel, they talk about the geopolitical stability. That's very important. We are, you know, like eight hours from, you know, Los Angeles, but we are eight hours from Japan and Korea. It's it's it's important to be, you

know, to be able to communicate. I mean, sometimes we we sometime ago we our agents are from from San Francisco and Los Angeles and our publisher is from Korea. So when we have to do you know [laughter] calls it, you know, we spend like 24 hours, you know, it's it's it's difficult to set goals, but it's doable. And I think it speaks a lot of of of how has strengthened the the ecosystem at Barcelona, right? Because we it's it's easier to find talent. It's easier to find talent right now in PC and consoles market, which is I mean not that easy. We were talking about that, but but it's easier than 10 years ago. I mean like 10 years ago you should sign someone from abroad or just learn yourself you know which always you know it it it leaves a scars you know when you have to do it yourself. So I think it's important that uh we are very good at you know getting people to come but we are very good at retaining them. I mean even if they go to another companies right they they they don't move away.

Good. So we we've seen that you know talent is attracted because of great projects. So on IP or you know uh global IP that are made there um because I mean they're coming from the universities we have some tax um incentives uh to attract people I mean senior people that is helping as well and then the quality of life would say the influence of the Mediterranean those are a key ones and then the ecosystem know some people come here and they know okay if it doesn't work here I mean it's a decision it's a long time decision basically I'm moving there it's an in you say investment because oh if it doesn't work here uh it doesn't matter because there is so many other opportunities. I think we're probably on time. Can can we do a couple of questions maybe come up here?
You got any questions? I've got a couple.
We don't. Um by the way, can I just say that I am a convert. I obviously love Barcelona. I am actually moving out here next summer. So Beckham Law, thank you very much. That's uh looking forward to some of that. But no, I can't make games unfortunately. So I'm not helping any of

you that way. Um do you have any questions? Um there's one very small put your hand up. That's good.
Go for it. It's just have a microphone coming to you now.
Um so I'm a recent graduate from CDM, a student uh a university that um teaches us uh a variety of things from art to make games to um multimedia. Um these days I have the feeling that there's a lot of talent, there's a lot of opportunities, but it's very hard to step in and to have your first opportunity to enter um this industry and to grow on it. So, um, what, uh, things would you say that make it easier or that would help me and my, um, my

colleagues to step in and to start? Would you recommend to start with uh an indie project or to keep um working on your abilities to get into a more um big company?
Um well that that depends on [clears throat] well that depends a lot on on your like a professional or zone or timeline. Uh I would suggest like especially I I hear like sometimes people like uh um like being very vocal about like uh starting at start creating a company right at the beginning right right from the university I think well there might be like some successful stories but it's quite hard because you don't have the experience to work on a company or to to create a game I would I would rather uh like suggest to go to to a company like to learn how a game is built uh could be Ubisoft could be

another another one and actually it's it's true that it's hard like to to find like a junior position on programming on design or on any other area but there are a lot of open opportunities on QC I know that it's hard like for a new a new grad like to to tell them okay start as QC but that's something that we have seen a lot at Ubisoft and in our students that when there is another opportunity we take the first thing that we take a look is at our internal talent we have a good QC that um she or he has like a good abilities on design on programming. So let's let's take first a look at them rather than outside. So that's that's a very easy entry point in
just get inside the company with the the QAQC job. Yeah. Yeah.
Any other comments on that?
I would say two thing here. We have we haven't mentioned it because I mean there's a lot to mention but there is an amazing internship program in Spain,
right?
It's it's amazing. So government is founding internship. It's super cheap for the companies. It's amazing opportunity. So go for it. I would say

go for anything because when we look for profiles, we want experience and an experience in a small company could be even better because you you're going to you're going to do things probably much faster and you're going to have much more impact, have more responsibility than maybe on a on a multinational. So go for anything. Talk to the people here, talk to the everyone and and and start, right? You need to start, you need to learn and and and again there are a lot of opportunities.
Great. Obviously also go to events. This is great. But also there's lots of meetups and just talk to people, make connections because then you'll know firsthand when opportunities come up. I'm have to end it there. We could talk for hours. But thank you so much. Big round of applause please for the panel. Awesome.
I [applause] just want to say something more. Okay.
I like very much I want to echo your words. I mean you say it's the best year to be in games 2026. I love that. I would say it's the best year to start or work for a game company in Barcelona.
There we go.

[music] [music]
[music]