{"id":669,"date":"2016-07-07T12:18:40","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T10:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/?p=669"},"modified":"2017-02-15T16:38:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T14:38:12","slug":"perfect-opportunity-for-investors-and-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/uk\/perfect-opportunity-for-investors-and-government\/","title":{"rendered":"The perfect opportunity for investors and the government. On challenges and potentials of the Swiss game industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his function as SGDA’s president, Matthias Sala has been interviewed by the Swiss magazine Beobachter<\/em>. As you might have guessed, the talk was about games, and he’s been\u00a0asked to illustrate the numerous\u00a0challenges game developers face in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

His take on the subject is that games fit the Swiss economic space and that the game industry can create jobs in Switzerland, but it still needs help from private investors and the government.<\/p>\n

Why should someone invest in games?<\/strong> According to Matthias Sala, because we live in a society which is\u00a0consuming more and more entertainment products, especially games. They\u00a0can be produced locally with limited costs, and sold worldwide in digital form. The product of game development is scalable and can be sold indefinitely.<\/p>\n

So the investors are standing in line to throw money at the developers?<\/strong>\u00a0Unfortunately not, says Matthias Sala.\u00a0Only a small part\u00a0of the budget of most Swiss game studios is funded\u00a0by investors. Around\u00a0two thirds of their budgets consist of private capital and funds gained through contract work.<\/p>\n

What are the reasons for this situation?<\/strong> We don’t have\u00a0a distinct entertainment industry in Switzerland. Therefore, there aren’t many investors who\u00a0have made money with it, and who can serve as examples of\u00a0success for others to follow.<\/p>\n

What does the sector need more money for?<\/strong>\u00a0Mainly for marketing activities. Every day over 1’000 new games are released worldwide. Only the ones which can stand out from the crowd\u00a0can be successful. But gaining the gamers’ attention is both time-consuming and expensive. Good publicity and networking at exhibitions and conferences are of paramount importance.<\/p>\n

The game industry has finally attracted political attention in Switzerland. Why should the government exert\u00a0influence on it?<\/strong>\u00a0Games fit Switzerland’s\u00a0economic space. The production is high-tech and interdisciplinary, with\u00a0many professions taking\u00a0part in the process. That’s what we’ve always done, that’s what we’re good at. Therefore, we believe that not only private investors should support this new sector, but so should the government. Game development is a global business, and if\u00a0we want the products to be made here, we need better business conditions – while\u00a0the reality we are facing now is that there are none.<\/p>\n

You are painting a dark picture.<\/strong>\u00a0Take a look at Qu\u00e9bec: the Canadian province and Switzerland share\u00a0about the same number of inhabitants. Yet in Qu\u00e9bec there are tax breaks for game developers, which\u00a0have turned\u00a0the region into one of the world’s most attractive\u00a0hubs for game companies. Moreover,\u00a0when a company creates a new job, the government pays for a second one. That’s quite a tough\u00a0competition for the Swiss market.<\/p>\n

But local policy is different. How\u00a0should the facilitation\u00a0of the Swiss game industry work?<\/strong>\u00a0There’s a clear lack of incentives to invest in a game company in Switzerland. If investments in company foundations would be assessed lower\u00a0for taxation purposes than investments\u00a0in a hedge fund abroad, it would definitely help.<\/p>\n

Political change is slow. How pressing is the need to install\u00a0such incentives?<\/strong>\u00a0It’s a very pressing issue, argues Matthias Sala. Game development in Switzerland has a good starting position, but the global market is growing at an incredible pace, and we could lose this vantage point\u00a0fast.<\/p>\n

How many jobs could potentially be created in Switzerland?<\/strong>\u00a0Let’s go back to Qu\u00e9bec: in just a few years about 10’000 jobs have been created\u00a0in game development alone, not counting jobs in related fields.<\/p>\n

Would the same scenario\u00a0be possible in Switzerland?<\/strong>\u00a0I don’t think it’s realistic, says Matthias Sala.\u00a0The situation in Switzerland differs from the one in the province of Qu\u00e9bec,\u00a0which tries to attract\u00a0big companies, which in turn create more jobs.\u00a0In Switzerland, the potential lies in the many great startups we have.\u00a0Around 10 to 50 people are needed for the production of a game, and we have more than\u00a0enough talent\u00a0in our country. If only we could make\u00a010 new\u00a0games with the help from investors or the government, we could create up to 500 jobs. And this number could be even higher\u00a0when we think of\u00a0all the suppliers involved in the production process. If some of these games would\u00a0be\u00a0successful, the companies could\u00a0grow further.<\/p>\n

Politicians of advanced\u00a0age need to talk about the young game industry. Can this work?<\/strong>\u00a0There’s still a lot of explaining to do. Games are very diverse products. They are technology, art, movie, animation, and music all rolled into one. Or they may simply stand for innovation. The step\u00a0onto the political stage offers\u00a0the opportunity to scrutinize\u00a0all these aspects in an official setting. And we, the\u00a0game developers, can now discuss games in the public space.<\/p>\n

Games have long been thematically tied to shooters.\u00a0Does the gaming scene have an image problem?\u00a0<\/strong>It’s getting better, says Matthias Sala. When I founded my own game company in 2007 one bank bluntly stated: “What are you thinking? We don’t do such things!”. After smartphone apps started to become\u00a0ubiquitous the mindset changed, and people realized that you could actually make money in this sector.<\/p>\n

But still, gaming has a leisurely vibe to it. It doesn’t sound like\u00a0serious work.\u00a0<\/strong>Often the characteristics of the finished product are\u00a0mistakenly blended into the reality of the production process. Many people think that we are professional game players. Truth is, we are professional game makers and creators, and try to use the medium in meaningful ways. There’s the category of games called\u00a0serious games. They are often used in medicine, science or education.<\/p>\n

Article in full:<\/strong>\u00a0Interview with Matthias Sala (German)<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his function as SGDA’s president, Matthias Sala has been interviewed by the Swiss magazine Beobachter. As you might have guessed, the talk was about games, and he’s been\u00a0asked to illustrate the numerous\u00a0challenges game developers face in Switzerland. His take on the subject is that games fit the Swiss economic space and that the game … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":312,"featured_media":756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[20,19,22,18,17,21],"class_list":["post-669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements","tag-development","tag-financing","tag-government","tag-investment","tag-investor","tag-policy","pmpro-has-access"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/312"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgda.ch\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}