by Rebecca Engmann*

Spurred on by the blockbuster success of local victory stories like Copenhagen's IO Interactive, Øresund Region developers have provided a wellspring of talent for the international gaming market, attracted venture capital and provided the technology to take gaming from traditional consoles to mobile phones, from small computer screens to big-screen Hollywood tie-ins.

In a fierce market for consumer dollars and investor support, the Nordic region is perhaps particularly well equipped to compete with major global distributors and developers. According to game industry association website spelplan.se, sales of computer game-related software and hardware in Sweden matched sales of music, video and box-office sales in 2002, representing a huge segment of the entertainment market, and making the country one of the world's few net exporters of video games. Sweden's game production cluster in Skåne has merged in recent years with Copenhagen's own robust gaming industry, home to some 30 developers, giving the region an even more high-profile presence on the gaming map. Last winter, the National Film School of Denmark announced plans to develop a masters' level programme in computer gaming, designed to hone students' skills in design, concept, authorship, youth culture and game theory - and produce even more qualified developers for the next generation of games.

High-drama, high-octane action

Copenhagen's Deadline Games made the not-so-quantum leap from TV production to game development in 1996 - and with a catalogue of suspense-thriller titles like "Blackout," "Suspect" and "The Poison," the company has injected the entertainment value of mass-market drama into the world of high-tech gaming. In 2001, after being owned by a Nordic video game publisher for three years (which they also co-founded), the founders staged a management buyout of their original studio, Deadline Games, and have since focused exclusively on the global market for triple-A (AAA) titles for game consoles. A contract with Take Two Interactive to develop an AAA action title for Playstation 2, Xbox and PC, which will be released at the end of 2004 or beginning of 2005, has poised the company for its big break.

Deadline Games' CEO, Chris Mottes says that game development in the Øresund Region has blossomed since his company debuted on the scene in 1996.

"Game development was limited at that time. A few companies were working with Amiga and similar boys' bedroom-type, niche platforms. Then around '96 or '97, things started moving in the region, first with kids' software and soon also with games for all audiences." says Mottes. "The Øresund area has a unique position, blending highly educated IT employees with a long project management heritage, strong entertainment, design and story-telling traditions and a seasoned sense of quality and work ethic."

Deadline's contract with Take Two Interactive has put the company on the cusp of an international breakthrough. Though details of the yet-to-be-released game are still tightly under wraps, Mottes confirmed that the game promises third-person action, set in a contemporary environment and keenly oriented toward the US market.

Mobile interactivity meets reality TV

Sweden's Aspiro has already used cross-media strategies and a focused youth demographic to carve its niche in the international gaming market. Billing itself as a "social entertainment services provider," Aspiro has successfully tapped into the computer market by appealing to the young consumer segment for mobile phones, text messaging, dating services and TV tie-ins.

"When Aspiro started in 1998, we saw a tremendous potential in the WAP industry, which was hardly known at the time. At the beginning, we were very technologically oriented, and planned to use our programmes for interactive business-oriented applications, such as stock trading. But we soon found out that there was an enormous potential in the youth segment. We decided to explore the kinds of services young people were interested in, and found our niche in dating games, role playing, lifestyle-oriented games and music," explained Helena Gynnerstedt, IR director for Malmö-based Aspiro.

The company's innovative approach, combining mobile phone text messaging to interactive gaming, debuted on the market in step with the rise of "reality TV" programmes, which invite viewers to interact in the plot development by voting contestants on or off the show. Aspiro's "Lifestylers" programme, a mobile phone role-playing game that allows phone users to invent their own characters and compete and interact with other players, was actually co-branded with "Big Brother" TV shows in the U.K. and France.

Spurred largely by its success in tapping into the "Big Brother" generation, Aspiro signed a framework agreement this past June with mobile phone service provider Orange to debut "Lifestylers" and other mobile entertainment titles to markets in United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Romania and Slovakia. The agreement will give Aspiro access to some 40 million mobile phone users in Europe.

Finding a key partner

For many Øresund Region game developers, success on the international market boils down to finding a "big brother" that can assist with marketing and distribution channels. Malmö-based company Massive Entertainment is one such story. Five years after Massive's 1997 launch, the tiny game developer was acquired by Vivendi Universal Games (VUG) in 2002, providing exactly the powerful partner it needed in marketing the company's real-time strategy (RTS) PC game "Ground Control." Today, Massive is just one of two VUG development studios outside North America, and has seen the successful launch of the second installment in the "Ground Control" series, "Ground Control II: Operation Exodus."

"There are a few trademarks that we try to incorporate in any Massive Entertainment game," explains Martin Walfisz, President of Massive Entertainment. "The gameplay aspect is very important, obviously. We like to be technology-intense, because we know that gamers like state-of-the-art technology. We try to include a strong multi-player component, so that people can play against each other around the world. Good story immersion is also important, as are memorable and colorful characters. And finally, our games should be modifiable, allowing players to modify the game as they go along," said Walfisz.

Although Massive Entertainment is a bona fide success story, some seven years in the making, Walfisz says the Øresund Region's game development market is still in its fledgling stages.

"I think we're in the early stages of the industry here. We're going to continue to grow, and hopefully we and other developers can get more established. In a few years we may see some spin-offs, but we're still in the very early stages," said Walfisz.

The eye of the needle

Copenhagen-based Media Mobsters found its global partner in Whiptail Interactive. After two years of developing their interactive mafia game "Gangland" (billed in gamers magazines as "the SIMS" meets "the Sopranos") Media Mobsters teamed up with Whiptail Interactive for a worldwide distribution deal.

"We passed through the eye of the needle (with Whiptail). As soon as you've published once, it's much easier to expand," said Media Mobsters co-founder Christian Majgaard, whose company is already hard at work on "Gangland II" - just months after the debut of "Gangland I."

September 2004

*Rebecca Engmann is an American journalist living in Copenhagen.