Finland reports and market data
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Modernizing Rendering at Supercell
Supercell has successfully modernized its rendering architecture to ensure the long-term viability of its high-revenue mobile titles, including Clash of Clans and Hay Day.
- Supercell developed a new core rendering framework called 'Thor' to replace legacy OpenGL ES systems, enabling better abstraction and support for modern APIs like Metal and Vulkan across their portfolio of games.
- The transition to Thor allowed Supercell to significantly reduce energy consumption on mobile devices, with internal metrics showing improved power efficiency for high-traffic titles like Clash of Clans.
- To manage the risks of updating billion-dollar live games, Supercell implemented a dual-path rendering system that allowed the new and old pipelines to coexist, enabling a phased, game-by-game migration.
The Game Industry of Finland Report: 2022
The Finnish game industry established itself as a premier global hub between 2021 and 2022, maintaining a record annual turnover of €3.2 billion.
- The Finnish game industry generated a record annual turnover of €3.2 billion in 2022, securing its position as one of the top five national game markets in Europe.
- The sector comprises 232 active studios and 4,100 employees, supported by a robust funding ecosystem that includes over €300 million in private investment and significant public R&D backing from Business Finland.
- While mobile remains the primary revenue driver, 64% of studios have pivoted toward PC development, reflecting a broader strategic shift toward multiplatform releases.
The Secret to Performance
High-performance in the creative gaming industry relies on a holistic integration of individual well-being, team-level synergy, and organizational adaptability.
- High-performance in gaming relies on a culture of psychological safety and transparency, which enables a 'hive-mind' mentality that drives innovation and sustainable growth.
- Teams should apply the Pareto principle to development, focusing resources on the small percentage of features that generate the majority of a product's impact.
- Scaling in an unpredictable market requires a shift from assuming stability to preparing for instability, with a primary focus on financial transparency and cash flow management.
Best Practices for Young Game Start-ups to Rise Private Investments: A Case Study for the City of Helsinki
The Finnish game industry has reached a stage of significant professionalization, necessitating a strategic shift for early-stage startups seeking private capital.
- Startups must demonstrate a scalable business model capable of delivering a minimum 3x return on investment to attract private capital.
- Investors prioritize teams that balance creative technical expertise with rigorous business acumen, specifically requiring a clear growth trajectory and a realistic exit strategy.
- Founders should position their ventures as robust growth companies rather than development studios by emphasizing corporate governance and meticulous documentation to streamline due diligence.
Panel: The Master of Multiplayer Panel
The mobile gaming landscape has undergone a profound transformation, with multiplayer functionality evolving from a niche feature into an industry standard.
- Multiplayer functionality in mobile gaming has surged significantly, with the proportion of top-grossing titles incorporating these elements rising from 12% to 78% over the past five years.
- Developers are shifting focus from purely competitive play toward cooperative and casual social experiences to lower entry barriers and improve player retention.
- Technical infrastructure for modern multiplayer games requires deterministic physics engines for cost-efficient replays and advanced server-side security to mitigate cheating.
Panel: Failing Fast: Stories From the Front Line of Prototyping
Prototyping serves as a fundamental proof-of-concept mechanism essential for validating core gameplay mechanics and ensuring that development resources are directed toward viable, engaging ideas.
- Prototyping is a universal necessity across all game genres, serving as a critical proof-of-concept mechanism to validate core mechanics and mitigate the risk of investing in unviable projects.
- Development teams should utilize time-boxing to maintain iterative flexibility and prevent stagnation during the prototyping phase.
- Physical, non-digital methods like paper and board-based testing are highly effective for validating player behavior and mechanics before committing to expensive digital implementation.
Real-time Voice & Video in Games & VR
The integration of real-time voice, video, and messaging into gaming and virtual reality environments serves as a primary driver for increased user engagement and revenue.
- Real-time communication infrastructure can support up to one million concurrent participants in a single session by utilizing a decentralized network of over 250 global data centers.
- AI-driven path optimization bypasses standard internet routing by transmitting data across multiple simultaneous paths through Tier 2 providers, effectively eliminating packet loss and achieving near-zero latency.
- Developers can integrate live voice, video, and messaging features into 2D and 3D environments using approximately 10 to 12 lines of code.
Panel: The Art of a Successful Game Launch
Achieving a successful game launch requires a fundamental shift in development strategy, moving away from reactive troubleshooting toward a proactive, integrated framework.
- Treat stability, scalability, and player support as foundational design elements integrated early in the production cycle rather than post-launch afterthoughts.
- Implement automated diagnostic tools, such as crash reporting and real-time monitoring, during development to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks before they impact the player base.
- Utilize AI-driven ticketing systems and efficient triage workflows to manage high-volume player feedback without diverting resources from core game development.
Panel: In-Game Advertising – Learn From the Best
In-game advertising has evolved into a vital, non-intrusive revenue stream that complements traditional monetization models while enhancing player immersion.
- In-game advertising serves as a strategic hedge against revenue volatility caused by tightening privacy regulations and restricted user tracking.
- Successful integration requires blending advertisements into the game environment, such as through billboards or branded assets, to maintain immersion and avoid disrupting the user experience.
- Publishers should shift their performance measurement focus from traditional click-through rates to brand awareness metrics like viewability to better demonstrate the value of native placements.
Keynote: Mastering In-game Ads
In-game advertising has emerged as a critical, low-risk monetization strategy that integrates native, non-intrusive placements directly into virtual environments.
- In-game advertising provides an incremental lifetime value increase of 2% to 10% by integrating non-intrusive, native placements into virtual environments.
- The strategy is most effective in 3D, sports, racing, and hyper-casual genres, where ads function as organic elements that enhance rather than disrupt gameplay realism.
- The industry is currently focused on attracting non-gaming brand budgets by positioning in-game placements as a more measurable and effective alternative to traditional out-of-home advertising.
Recognising the Value of Games That Retain
Mobile game developers operating in increasingly saturated markets must move beyond basic data analytics and churn detection to prioritize habit creation as the primary driver of player retention.
- Developers must shift focus from basic churn detection to building habit-forming loops that transform casual play into consistent daily engagement.
- Retention strategies should be segmented into three distinct lifecycle phases: short-term (days 1–7), mid-term (days 8–30), and long-term (post-day 30).
- The MENAP (Middle East, North Africa, and Pacific) regions represent critical emerging markets that require localized content and specific regional adaptation strategies.
Panel: Funding & Financing: How To Accurately Value Your Studio
Valuing a game studio is a multifaceted strategic exercise that requires balancing immediate capital requirements with long-term operational autonomy.
- Valuation should be treated as a strategic partnership tool rather than a static financial figure, as unrealistic early-stage valuations can create long-term hurdles for future growth and exit planning.
- Founders should aim for a threefold increase in studio valuation between funding rounds, contingent upon demonstrating consistent proof of concept and operational execution.
- Early-stage valuation is primarily driven by subjective assessments of the development team and the total addressable market, whereas mature studio valuation relies on data-driven metrics like player retention, revenue, and lifetime value.