The Icelandic Gaming Industry held a Meetup on the 6th of September 2012 in the usual downtown Reykjavik bar. In this presentation I talk about how and why IGI was established and explained the role and responsibilities of the organisation. Aðalsteinn Sverrirsson of Íslandsstofa or Promote Iceland also joined explaining how they support the gaming industry. Finally I also talked about games in general and misconceptions in the media.

1. How to create a gaming industry:
The story of the
Icelandic Gaming Industry
Ólafur Andri Ragnarsson
http://www.olafurandri.com/?p=1872

2. Meeting to discuss forming a
gaming organization May 6th 2009

5. Formally founded
September 25 th 2009

7. 7

8. 620 employees in 2011

9. Turnover of 62.820.513 EUR
in 2011

10. Raise awareness among the public and
governemnt of the gaming industry as a
rapidly growing internatinal industry with
well-paid and diverse jobs

12. Work with other companies within the
creative industries and the hightech
sector within the Association of Industries
for shared interests

14. Establish connection with educational
institusions both in teaching and in
research to promote game
development as an interesting choice of
education for students

15. Samstarfssamningur HR og IGI
Háskólinn í
Reykjvík mun
bjóða upp á
Leikjalínu í
tölvunarfræðum
Áhersla á fög
sem tengjast
leikjum og
leikjagerð
www.hr.is

16. IGI AWARDS 2010 –
Game Creator 2012

18. Provide a platform for cooperation and
knowledge sharing within the gaming
industry in Iceland

19. IGI MEETUPS

21. (cc) Johannes Jansson/norden.org
All in a day’s work for the
wannabe entrepreneur.

22. The Nordic Game Program budgets
12.3
11.3 11.2 11.3
MDKK 10.0
6.0
MEUR 0.5 1.35 1.65 1.5 1.5 1.5
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

24. Growth of startups!
180
160
140
120
100
Applications
80
Accepted
60
40
20
0
2006 2007:1 2007:2 2008:1 2008:2 2009:1 2009:2 2010:1 2010:2 2011 2012

25. Hit rate Funding
Denmark 12,1% 12,400,000
Sweden 6,9% 10,300,000
Finland 7,5% 7,600,000
Norway 10,5% 3,600,000
Iceland 10,9% 2,200,000

29. NORDIC GAME

30. Íslandsstofa og IGI

islandsstofa.is

31.  NORDICGAME
islandsstofa.is

32. 
islandsstofa.is

33. 
islandsstofa.is

34. 
islandsstofa.is

36. Really?

37. - So, they actually pressed ”JA”.

38. Nordic Games Institution +
Nordic Games Resources
Picture: Marcus Bengtsson (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)

39. The Nordic Game Program 2 budget
as adopted by the Nordic Council of Ministers for Culture
in Turku/Åbo, Finland, on 2011-04-04:
11.2 11.3
MDKK
9.0
The Nordic
6.5 6.5
Game
Program 4.0
MEUR 1.5 1.5 1.2 0.9 0.9 0.5
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

40. WHY
COMPUTER
GAMES?

41. Average age of gamers is
37

42. 82%
of gamers are
over 18

43. 175%
increase of females
in 2009

44. Why stop playing when getting old?

45. 17%
Increase of 2-5 years
old since 2010

46. Computer
games are part
of growing up

47. By age 21 games
have played for
10.000
hours
Copyright © 2010, Ólafur

48. Compulsory school is
10.000 hours

50. $50 bn
Games
$20 bn
$10 bn
1990 2000 2010

51. 2014

52. Games are the most powerful force
to make people to stuff

53. “ ... people who play
action games far
outperform the people
who don’t”
- Green and Bavelier’s experiment
Copyright © 2011, Ólafur

54. Better in problem
solving
Copyright © 2011, Ólafur

55. Better in unknown
situations
Copyright © 2011, Ólafur

56. Better in exploring
new options
Copyright © 2011, Ólafur

57. Track more objects
Copyright © 2011, Ólafur

58. Better in monitoring
cluttered world
Copyright © 2011, Ólafur

59. Better at processing
visual stream of
information
Copyright © 2011, Ólafur

60. DISRUPTION!
Copyright © 2011, Ólafur

61. IN THE NEXT DECADE
MILLIONS OF JOBS
WILL BE
DISRUPTED!

62. MANY JOBS WILL
DISAPPEAR

63. WE DON’T KNOW
WHAT JOBS WILL BE
NEEDED IN THE
FUTURE

64. THE IPHONE
DID NOT EXIST
5 YEARS AGO

65. AND THIS iS
2 YEARS OLD

66. SO, WHAT KIND OF
PEOPLE WILL YOU
HIRE?

67. Let your kids play
more games!

69. Ólafur Andri Ragnarsson
@olandri
andri@betware.com
www.olafurandri.com
slideshare.net/olandri
youtube.com/olandri