Nordic Territories Partner Region for Gamescom 2014

Europe’s Nordic territories, home to some of the world’s most innovative and successful gaming companies, will be the partner region for international video-gaming conference and trade fair gamescom 2014.

Among the many gaming firms in the region are Finland’s Rovio, makers of Angry Birds; Sweden’s DICE (the Battlefield franchise) and Denmark’s IO Interactive (Hitman). Previous gamescom partner regions have included Canada, Great Britain, Korea and France.

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In addition to delivering hits, Nordic gaming companies are acknowledged to be among the most innovative, with companies such as Finland’s Supercell breaking new ground in the mobile gaming industry with strategy titles Clash of Clans and Hay Day; Danish developer Jeppe Carlsen winning critical accolades for his minimalist platform title 140 and mobile game Badland, from Finnish group Frogmind, winning Apple’s iPad game of the year award in 2013.

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With some 700 companies employing a workforce of more than 7,000 and an annual turnover of $2 billion (€1.5 billion) last year, gaming is the fastest-growing industry in the Nordic region of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland.

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“The gamescom offers an excellent platform for our developers,” said KooPee Hiltunen, deputy chairman of the board of the Nordic Game Institute. “Since the northern countries are pioneering in the development of the European games industry, the partnership is also a strategically important move for gamescom.”

The gamescom event, the world’s largest video game conference in terms of attendance, runs August 13-17 in Cologne, Germany.