Video games have been a dominating global entertainment source over the last few decades. It’s a source of enjoyment a lot of people around the world partake in for many different reasons. Some do it for escapism, some for mindless enjoyment, while others just need to trigger the neurons in their brain some way. Regardless, every single country has their own video game scene, not only in consuming them, but in the creation process as well.
One location that goes somewhat overlooked is Iceland. This small European country northwest of the United Kingdom may only house a small population of around 400,000, but it also has one of the biggest gaming scenes in the world, at least per capita. The folks at Business Iceland were gracious enough to send us out to Iceland for a couple of days during the Iceland Innovation Week in May, and we were able to talk to some of the smaller independent gaming developers, not only to check out what they have been working on, but how the country has evolved in the development of video games.
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From Humble Beginnings
The history of how technology and video games came to Iceland is an interesting one, because Iceland in itself is a pretty secluded island far away from the biggest nations. Talking with Halldor Snaer Kristjansson, who is the Chairman of Iceland Game Industry (IGI) and the CEO of Myrkur Games, he went over the history of the country, going all the way back to when the British and Americans occupied the relatively poor country during WWII. They invested a significant amount into the country during the war, building infrastructure from the roads to the airports.
Going from WWII and all the way into the ‘90s, the country began to quickly rise with the rest of the world, going from fisheries as their primary source of business into software, technology, banking and tourism. “From a century, we have been pulled up from living in turf houses in 80-90% of the country into now being one of the most tech-savvy and saturated technological nations in the world,” said Halldor.
The CCP Games Influence
Throughout our short time in Iceland, we were able to visit a handful of small independent studios, such as Porcelain Fortress, Vitar Games and Aska Studios, just to name a few. While the latter two are actually exempt from this, there was one thing most of them had one thing in common: CCP Games. If you’re unfamiliar with CCP Games (Crowd Control Productions), they are one of the most impressive success stories in the industry, creating the massively successful EVE Online that has been in the hands of millions of players worldwide since its release all the way back in 2003. There was little in terms of the gaming industry back then, but once CCP released EVE Online, it was “kind of the turn of the tide here.”
CCP Games was one of the first video game studios to publish a massive hit in Iceland, and because of that, the majority of people we met worked at CCP Games at some point in their career. For example, Ivar Kristjansson, one of the founders of 1939 Games which developed the popular World War II card game KARDS, was also the CEO/CFO and Co-founder of CCP Games.
Shortly after meeting Ivar and his brother Gudmundur, we met with the fine folks at Porcelain Fortress, creators of Walk of Life, with their CEO Ingolfur Aevarsson, not only a former Director at CCP, but also worked at 1939 Games as their Chief Marketing Officer.
It wasn’t just CCP Games, though, as around ten years ago QuizUp, a popular mobile game, was released by Plain Vanilla Games, which was based out of Iceland. This game went to the top of the charts for many months, with a userbase of around eighty million players. And then after 2015, things boomed for the industry in Iceland. Obviously, the pandemic helped with this as everyone was stuck at home with little to do but play video games or develop them, but also when CCP was sold to Pearl Abyss.
“All those investors who bought into CCP through all of those years, actually got their exit, and it also meant that some ex-CCP devs were starting to pursue or were getting the ideas or pursuing their own studios,” stated Halldor. “Of course Ivar (from 1939) was a prime example of this, and why investors just had their pocked lined by the exit of Pearl Abyss. So, kind of a match made in heaven in terms of a small ecosystem that just goes around.”
Not only is there a sense of respect shown between the studios, but there’s a level of cooperation we learned that feels almost unheard of in any other country. We learned that once a month or once every other month, many of the studios get together and talk about their games and how they can improve the industry in Iceland with events such as Game jams and education. There’s a sense of community and bonding between studios that we rarely see in North America or most countries, for that matter.
Not only is there a sense of respect shown between the studios, but there’s a level of cooperation we learned that feels almost unheard of in any other country.
Outside of CCP Games
Aska Studios and Vitar Games are two of the few studios that were formed outside the CCP Games bubble, with the developers of the former being young up-and-comers with an ambitious project, and the latter being more of a classically trained actor who has a long documented fascination with World War I. We’re seeing more and more newer companies appearing within Iceland, with more than 20 game studios and over 500 developers.
With that said, it’s acknowledged that there’s only a fine number of resources and people at their disposal right now, so Iceland is trying to entice more people to get into the industry. For example, CCP has been working with theReykjavík Universityto put in classes to teach game development and design. On top of that, they’re trying to entice more companies and individuals from internal and external sources to invest their talent in game development within Iceland. “We worked with the government, and they have put into place a very competitive R&D tax reimbursement in the country, which is aimed at start-ups and innovative companies doing research and development, specifically,” Halldor stated. “During all of this, what kind of happened, the sector of start-ups, innovation and tech are all on track to be our largest export by 2030, even exceeding fisheries and tourism.”
For foreign talent, the government is looking to help people move to the country to help it grow. For example, for the first three years, anyone under the program will be given a tax incentive against your salary tax of about 30%. In the country itself, the government does hand out grants, but Halldor specified they aren’t specific for video games; they just happen to be given out to tech such as video games from anywhere between €10,000 to €400,000. This was apparently vital for the growth of the tech industry in Iceland during the COVID pandemic, making them competitive against other countries.
The Future
The Icelandic gaming scene is on the rise, with more independent studios popping up every year. Whether it’s smaller titles like No Time to Relax to more ambitious projects such as Paxi Dei or Gang of Frogs, Iceland has the chops to produce some of the most impressive video game content. That’s not to say they weren’t before, because CCP Games is one of the most impressive come up stories, but their catalog of talent and projects is on the rise. On top of this, Iceland has shown their love for video games. From a study a couple of years ago, over 86% of Icelanders aged 18-36 play video games actively, with 78% who are aged between 30-45. We were also told Iceland has the highest saturation of Steam user per capita in the world at 18.58%. The industry is not slowing down in Iceland; if anything, it’s accelerating.
Here are some of the notable games we were able to check out:
Gang of Frogs – Aska Studios
The highly anticipated upcoming cooperative card-based shooter was the talk of the event, not only being developed by a fresh bunch of developers, but featuring a unique twist on the genre. While we only got to play a little bit of it, it left us immensely hopeful of what they’re able to achieve when it releases later this year.
Gang of Frogs
Walk of Life – Porcelain Fortress
The spiritual successor to Porcelain Fortress' No Time to Relax, Walk of Life features a bevy of new and improved features that have the player going through a miserable life into something with a lot of potential. The RNG-based game has a lot of heart and style that, just like life, can deal you a bad hand, literally.
Walk of Life
Pax Dei – Mainframe Studios
Released last year into early access, Mainframe Studios hopes that Pax Dei will be the next big MMORPG. It features exciting combat, but it all revolves around an economy more so than anything else. While other MMORPGs are all about raids, Pax Dei is about carving out your part of land and expanding upon it through materials earned in dungeons and the like.
Dig In – Vitar Games
The passion shown in Dig In is undeniable. It features thought-provoking RTS combat that has the player advancing the lines in World War I, all while managing each individual soldier. We only got a sneak peek at what to expect, but it has an immense amount of potential that should have fans of the genre and WWI enthusiasts jumping for joy.
Island of Winds – Parity Games
While we weren’t able to see any gameplay during our time in Iceland, we were able to get insight into Parity Games' upcoming project, Island of Winds. This spiritually driven adventure game looks to bring Iceland’s rich lore and folktales to the forefront.
Island of Winds
KARDS - 1939 Games
We were able to talk with the two owners of 1939 Games about the highly successful KARDS: The World War II Card Game. It has been a long and emotional journey for the brothers, one coming from co-founding CCP Games to creating a passion project after his exit.
KARDS - The WW2 Card Game
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