Sandsoft CEO on how a cohesive nationwide technique may point up Spain’s video games business

Pocket Gamer Connects heads to Barcelona subsequent month on June third to 4th.

Within the construct as much as the development, we now have been attaining out to audio system and native firms to get their perspectives at the Barcelona video games hub and wider Spanish sector.

We stuck up with Sandsoft CEO David Fernandez about putting in the corporate’s Barcelona studio and what it’ll take to make town a number one video games hub.

PocketGamer.biz: How would you assess Spain and Barcelona’s video games scene this present day?

David Fernandez: I’m frequently inspired by way of Barcelona’s evolution right into a premier world hub for the video games business. Town’s dynamic ecosystem, characterized by way of a mix of established studios, leading edge startups, and a wealthy skill pool, positions it at the leading edge of gaming innovation and advancement.

Barcelona’s enchantment to global gaming firms is obvious. Main gamers like King, with its second-largest world place of work housing over 600 pros, and Scopely, working a equivalent dimension tech hub, have solidified their presence right here.

Town’s popularity as a generation and inventive hub has additionally attracted different firms similar to Bandai Namco, FunPlus, Rovio or Voodoo that have expanded their global presence in Barcelona.

The startup scene is similarly colourful. The new release of Bespoke Pixel by way of business veteran David Polfeldt, subsidized by way of $25 million in investment, underscores town’s capability to foster new ventures. Additionally, the purchase of native studios like Virtual Legends by way of Activision Snow fall, Omnidrone by way of Scopely and Socialpoint by way of Take-Two Interactive highlights Barcelona’s strategic significance within the world gaming panorama.

Ability advancement is a cornerstone of Barcelona’s video games business. With over 4,000 pros hired within the sector and a 20% build up in gaming skill appeal, town opponents conventional tech hubs like San Francisco. Instructional establishments such because the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Universitat de Barcelona – ENTI or College Ramon Llull – Los angeles Salle be offering specialized techniques in recreation design and advancement, making sure a gradual pipeline of professional pros.

Town’s dedication to nurturing skill is additional exemplified by way of tasks just like the Ability Enviornment, introduced by way of Cellular International Capital Barcelona. This platform goals to deliver in combination builders, tech firms, and academic establishments to advertise studying {and professional} expansion within the virtual box.

In conclusion, Barcelona’s gaming scene is prospering, pushed by way of a mixture of global funding, a strong skill pool, and a supportive ecosystem for each established firms and startups. At Sandsoft, we’re excited to be a part of this dynamic setting and sit up for contributing to its endured good fortune.

What alternatives do you spot in Spain and Barcelona’s video games business? 

A thriving cellular gaming marketplace: Spain is domestic to considered one of Europe’s maximum engaged cellular gaming audiences, riding the expansion of leading edge recreation reviews and monetisation fashions.

Barcelona stands proud as a hub for cellular recreation advancement, with deep skill swimming pools and a powerful design tradition. Native studios are constructed for pace, ready to prototype abruptly, release globally, and scale successfully, making town a pacesetter within the evolving cellular gaming panorama.

There’s a novel ingenious power in Barcelona that blends native tradition with global affect. This makes it an implausible launchpad for authentic IP, particularly story-driven and stylistically unique video games. We’re seeing extra funding in narrative design, artwork route, and cross-media attainable, growing room for flats right here to guide globally in recreation creativity.

Barcelona continues to draw global pros at an outstanding price. Town now hosts over 122,000 virtual pros, with 13,500 new consultants added in 2023 on my own, which is a 12.4% build up over the former yr. Significantly, 5,111 of those new pros got here from outdoor Catalonia, highlighting town’s world enchantment. 

This inflow of numerous enjoy is a large asset for groups aiming to construct globally aggressive video games. For Sandsoft, get admission to to this multicultural, multilingual team of workers allows us to assume cross-market from day one.

Barcelona’s video games business is maturing abruptly. The presence of primary publishers, coupled with startup good fortune tales and acquisitions, is fueling investor self assurance. 

There’s a rising urge for food for co-development, partnerships, and challenge job, which opens up new techniques for flats to scale collaboratively.

Briefly, Spain, and Barcelona specifically, isn’t just an excellent spot to construct video games – it’s turning into a spot to outline the way forward for how video games are made, monetised, and skilled.

And what demanding situations do you spot?

Whilst the momentum in Spain’s video games business is thrilling, there also are significant demanding situations that want to be navigated thoughtfully to maintain long-term expansion.

Mockingly, probably the most unwanted side effects of Barcelona’s good fortune is that the contest for senior, specialized skill, in particular in spaces like recreation financial system design, information and analytics, dwell ops, and multiplayer engineering, is fierce.

With such a lot of global studios putting in operations right here, skill retention and reimbursement expectancies are emerging temporarily. As an business, we want to assume extra about long-term funding in native coaching pipelines and upskilling, now not simply recruitment.

Investment gaps for early-stage studios: despite the fact that there’s important overseas funding and M&A job, early-stage investment for indie and mid-sized studios nonetheless items a problem. Many promising groups have ingenious imaginative and prescient however battle with get admission to to seed capital or reinforce for transitioning from prototype to publish-ready. Bridging this hole – via public-private partnerships, publishing accelerators, or challenge networks – may unencumber a brand new wave of innovation.

Any other problem is regional reinforce. Spain has more than one self sustaining areas with other approaches to tax incentives, grants, and cultural reinforce for video games. Whilst this variety is usually a power, it additionally creates complexity for firms working throughout areas or for global corporations seeking to perceive the ecosystem. Larger concord or national-level alignment may make Spain extra aggressive globally.

Regardless of the implausible skill and output, Spanish studios nonetheless face demanding situations in gaining global reputation and visibility, in particular in comparison to friends in nations like Sweden, Canada or South Korea. Construction more potent connections to world occasions, streamers and platforms may assist enlarge the achieve of Spanish-made IPs.

At Sandsoft, we imagine that those demanding situations also are alternatives: to collaborate, mentor, and assist form the ecosystem in a sustainable method. Barcelona has all of the proper substances to thrive – it’s now about sewing them in combination in some way that helps ingenious and industrial good fortune at each degree of the adventure.

Why do you assume that Barcelona is one of these large video games hub in Spain? 

Barcelona’s place as Spain’s main video games hub isn’t simply the results of one issue. It’s the end result of a novel mixture of cultural power, world connectivity, and long-term ecosystem construction.

Town has all the time had a deeply rooted ingenious identification. From structure to virtual arts, Barcelona has traditionally attracted innovators and visionaries. That very same spirit has made its method into recreation advancement, the place the mix of inventive expression and state-of-the-art generation has discovered fertile flooring.

Mix that with robust technical foundations – because of top-tier universities and a strong startup ecosystem – and also you get a town that’s completely provided to reinforce the total lifecycle of recreation introduction.

However what actually units Barcelona aside is its global persona and high quality of existence. It attracts in world skill now not simply with skilled alternatives, however with the way of living, tradition, and openness that make folks need to keep.

This world mindset has made it an glaring selection for primary recreation firms like King, Scopely, Ubisoft, FunPlus, Rovio, Voodoo and Bandai Namco, who’ve all established important operations right here. Their presence has helped catalyse a clustering impact, making a tight-knit ecosystem the place massive studios, indies, provider suppliers, and publishers can collaborate and thrive aspect by way of aspect.

Town and regional governments have constantly subsidized virtual innovation via training tasks, skill accelerators just like the Ability Enviornment, and common internet hosting of global gaming and tech occasions. Those efforts have ensured a gradual pipeline of latest pros coming into the business, whilst additionally elevating Barcelona’s profile at the world degree.

There’s additionally one thing concerning the tradition of Barcelona itself that matches the video games business. It’s experimental, expressive, collaborative, and continuously evolving – qualities that reflect what makes the most productive video games thrive. This cultural alignment is helping foster an atmosphere the place recreation builders really feel inspired to take ingenious dangers, inform new tales, and construct reviews with world enchantment.

As a abstract, Barcelona hasn’t simply grown into Spain’s gaming hub – it’s grow to be considered one of Europe’s most fun facilities for interactive leisure. For Sandsoft, it represents a novel intersection of creativity, skill, and alternative, and a town the place we’re proud to assist form the way forward for video games.

What’s your outlook for the field? If we talk once more in 5 years, the place do you hope Spain and Barcelona’s video games marketplace to be? 

Having a look forward, I’m extremely constructive about the place Spain, and particularly Barcelona, can cross within the subsequent 5 years. The root has already been laid: a wealthy ingenious scene, robust cellular expertise, a rising pool of world skill, and a maturing ecosystem of start-ups, traders, and establishments. Now, it’s about scale, innovation, and world have an effect on.

If we talk once more in 5 years, I’d hope to peer Spain recognised as a top-tier Ecu chief in recreation advancement, now not just for generating hit titles, however for pushing the limits of the medium, whether or not via rising tech like generative AI, immersive narrative design, or new monetisation fashions that prioritise participant enjoy.

I imagine Barcelona is uniquely situated to grow to be the go-to hub for mobile-first innovation: a spot the place studios can experiment, release, and scale globally. I’d love to peer town grow to be a launchpad for authentic IP that travels throughout platforms and cultures, striking Spanish creativity at the world gaming map in a larger method.

We even have the prospective to peer a more potent pipeline of mid-sized studios. This will require deeper get admission to to capital, mentorship, and publishing reinforce, however the skill is already right here.

Any other thrilling shift I am hoping to peer is larger integration between training and business. If universities, coaching techniques, and studios proceed to paintings intently, we will be able to construct a technology of builders who don’t seem to be best technically professional, but in addition culturally and commercially attuned to what the way forward for video games seems like.

And in spite of everything, I’d love for Spain to broaden a extra cohesive nationwide technique for supporting video games as an inventive and financial power. The items are there; aligning them may take the field from robust to actually world-class.

What extra do you need for the Spanish and Barcelona video games scene?

There’s such a lot to be fascinated by in Spain’s video games business, but when we need to actually unencumber its complete attainable, a couple of key items nonetheless want to come in combination.

At the beginning, more potent institutional reinforce would make a large distinction. We’ve noticed certain steps, particularly in Catalonia, however what’s wanted now could be a coordinated, long-term nationwide technique that recognises video games as a cultural and financial powerhouse. That suggests extra constant public investment mechanisms, tax incentives, and streamlined insurance policies that scale back friction for each native studios and global traders.

Talking of funding, we want extra backing for home-grown firms: now not simply on the startup section, however on the the most important degree the place studios transfer from a promising prototype to a globally introduced identify.

There’s numerous ingenious firepower in Spain, however with out get admission to to significant publishing reinforce or Collection A investment, too many tasks fall brief in their attainable. Extra native funding automobiles, paired with mentorship and world publishing bridges, may assist catalyse the following wave of sustainable, IP-driven studios.

On the identical time, I’d love to peer extra global collaboration and co-development alternatives. Barcelona is already at the radar of primary world publishers, however there’s nonetheless room to put Spain as a most well-liked spouse marketplace, particularly for mobile-first, live-operated video games and rising codecs like cross-platform social play.

Ability advancement is any other large house. We’ve noticed spectacular expansion in virtual pros coming into the marketplace, however we want to boost up the relationship between academia and business. That suggests game-specific coaching, extra internships, and endured efforts to deliver underrepresented voices into the fold. A more potent, extra various pipeline will get advantages everybody: from indies to triple-A.

Finally, I’d love to peer extra reputation of video games as cultural exports. Identical to movie or literature, video games inform tales, lift identification, and form how nations are noticed. Spain has the ingenious DNA to construct worlds that resonate globally – and we must be backing that ambition with pleasure.

At Sandsoft, we’re right here for the long-term and we’re dedicated to operating with companions throughout the private and non-private sectors to assist take this ecosystem from promising to world-leading.