"There's almost an industry here now" – The rapid growth of the Italian games business
The big statistic from yesterday's story about Italy's games industry was it now has 2,400 employees, which is up 50% over 2021.
That 50% is an impressive figure, but 2,400 is not. There are towns in the UK with a larger population of game developers. Yet both figures accurately sum-up Italy's games scene: after barely existing for decades, things are starting to happen.
Or, to quote Valerio Di Donato, the CEO of 34BigThings (the creators of the Redout series): "I founded this company ten years ago, and it was basically a fucking desert out there. There's almost a games industry now."
The catalyst for this growth can be traced to the 2021 introduction of tax breaks, when the Italian government introduced a 25% tax credit for game developers.
"It took a lot of time to convince them that they had to support video games and put them on the same level as movies or audio-visual," says Thalita Malagò, the director general at Italian trade body IIDEA, who was speaking to us during Italy's First Playable event in Florence.
"Over the last few years, we've seen also some interesting developments in local administration supporting video games acceleration programmes. For example, the Municipality of Bolognia or the Lazio region, the region where Rome is based... these two regions have invested public money for developing acceleration programmes for video game startups, so providing funds and specialised mentorship in order to have these teams develop a prototype."
Luisa Bixio, the CEO of Milestone, which is the racing studio behind Ride and Hot Wheels Unleashed, adds: "It's been very important because it's a first step. There are several studios that signed with external publishers this year and I think tax credits is a
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