Turkey to ramp up its share in $150 bln gaming industry

ISTANBUL

Turkey aims to increase its share in the global $150 billion gaming sector from $1 billion to $10 billion in five years, the Technology Development Zone (Bilişim Vadisi) General Manager Ahmet Serdar İbriahimcioğlu told daily Hürriyet.

“The United States and China get almost half of the cake. We have a volume of $1 billion. We have enough strength to increase it,” he said.
“I believe that Turkey will achieve a great level in software exports in five years and we will reach the targeted numbers in the gaming sector easily,” he added. Some 10,000 young game developers have attended camps organized by the Digital Animation and Gaming Center (Digiage) within Bilişim Vadisi, according to İbriahimcioğlu’s remarks.
“Entrepreneurs who have participated in the last two camps have attracted $5 million in investments. We have created nearly 50 startups. So, these young people attended the camps and then established their own entrepreneurships. And two of them moved to the U.S. to operate on the international level,” he said.

The third Digiage gaming camp ended on Jan. 29, when 40 games developed by the participants were presented, according to a post on Digiage’s Twitter account.
The camp brought together public officials and authorities, representatives of the gaming ecosystem, academics and investors at Bilişim Vadisi, it said.
Turkish game developers have achieved great success in recent years on the global scene. Last year, Dream Games, which was founded by Soner Aydemir, became a unicorn - a newly founded private company valued at more than $1 billion. A game developed by the company - Royal Match - was among the games with the highest revenue rate in 2021.
In the meantime, Royal Riches-developer Spyke Games managed to get $55 million in its latest investment round.
Peak Games, the first gaming unicorn of Turkey, was sold to U.S. giant Zynga for $1.8 billion in 2020.

Gram Games, Masomo, SkGames and Mobge are other promising Turkish game developers.
A five-member team that participated in the third Digiage gaming camp created a new game in five days. “We have made an unprecedented computer game. We started here and finished in five days. The theme of our game is climate change and metaverse,” said 21-year-old project manager Muhammed Can Adıgüzel.

There are more than 100 startups at Bilişm Vadi’s incubation center and the number is expected to hit 150 this year.
“Our door is open to everyone with a technology-based idea,” said İbriahimcioğlu. “Every person who has a research and development, software or design project can apply to us via our website,” he also said.
Turkish startups attracted investments totaling about $1.5 billion last year, according to a report released by Startup Centrum last week.
The total volume of investments in Turkish startups increased by ninefold in 2021 compared to the previous year, said Startup Centrum, a digital community that gets startups, talents, investors and incubators together.