Romanian gaming industry on the rise, report says

The Romanian gaming Industry is flourishing, as the turnover of sector reported an increase of 19.2% last year as against 2017, reaching to USD 188.5 million, according to data reported to the tax authorities, as revealed by the latest RDGA report.

Most of the studios posted higher turnover during 2018, which makes the last year growth being net superior to the 2017 growth evaluated at 11.08%.

There are over 100 game development studios in Romania at present, with 77% of them in Bucharest and the rest are based in the great university centres such as Cluj and Timișoara, but also in cities like Craiova, Brașov, Târgu Mureș, Arad or Turda.

According to the RDGA analysis, the footprint of the local gaming industry enlarged to overs 103 studios and more than 6.000 employees. The national ecosystem that includes freelancers, training providers, educational institutions and authorities expanded during the last two years. Nevertheless, the majority of the Romanian studios are included in the small and medium size companies, 67% having less than 10 employees.

In terms of revenue and geographical location the Romanian industry is highly concentrated.

The top 10 Romanian gaming companies accumulating 87.8% of the total local industry revenue, while the companies in the Top 5 concentrate 79.2% of this revenue.

As for geographical distribution, the industry is concentrated around Bucharest, but during the last couple of years, Cluj-Napoca and Timișoara have attracted a growing number of gaming companies, thanks to the quality of the univerisity graduates and the openness to the digital economy.
Romania is a market of game developers, the studios that have as main activity game development (both original or licensed IP),count for 74.2% of the companies.

Most of the studios are funding their projects with their own money and only 15.8% of the surveyed companies accessed external funding, with Angel Investors and Publisher funding as main sources. During 2018, at least 6 studios have managed to attract the attention of Angel Investors and Venture Capital, with over 2.5 million USD capital involved in these transactions.
“The year 2019 exhibits a good economical projection for the local gaming industry. Based on partial financial data and economic forecasts, 69% of local studios are expecting an increase in turnover this year. Aligned to the global trends, the Romanian game development market offers plenty of opportunities,” say the authors of the report.