Game Development in Ukraine:Industry Guide

Jun ‘18

WHY GAMEDEV?

Newzoo forecasts that in 2018 the games market revenue will reach $137.9 billion which is 13.3% more than in 2017.The revenue of the gaming industry today is bigger than the one of the movie industry and is closing to the revenue of the sports industry.

Leading research companies estimate that the games market will continue to grow in the coming years both in regards to revenues and the number of players. All this makes the game development one of the most promising investment sectors in the world.

A particularly rapid growth is observed in the mobile games market with a startling breakthrough happening during the last 10 years. In 2012, it accounted for the smallest market share, while in this year mobile games will generate more than a half of all revenues in the industry, namely $70.3 billion.

Ukrainian game development industry is also evolving rapidly. Only in recent years more than 30 new game dev companies have appeared. Gamedev studios are present in almost all Ukraine's regions. At the same time, there has not been any research on the game development industry in Ukraine.

ACHIEVERS HUB together with UNIT.City Innovation Park has made the first attempt to create the map of Ukrainian gamedev companies and analyze the market situation.We have conducted a large-scale survey among the local game development companies. The results of this survey laid the foundation for the following report. The report includes:

Over 70 Ukrainian gamedev companies participated in the first survey. In the editions to follow, we plan to involve more participants.

• How many companies are developing games in Ukraine and how many developers they employ?

• What is the year-by-year history of Ukrainian gamedev market?• What is the geography of Ukrainian gamedev companies?• What are the genres of the games developed in Ukraine, which

platforms are they being developed for and which technologies are being used?

• What sources of funding do Ukrainian game studios use?

Source: Newzoo

Europe, Middle East and Africa

North America

Latin America

Asia-Pacific region

US

China

$ 2 8 . 7 B $ 3 2 . 7 B

$ 5 B

$ 7 1 . 4 B

$ 3 0 . 4 B

$ 3 7. 9 B

GLOBAL GAMES MARKET: THE UNLEASHED GROWTH

4 5 % 3 9 %

3 5 % 3 2 % 3 0 % 2 7 % 2 5 % 2 4 % 2 3 % 2 2 %

3 7 % 3 8 % 3 6 %

3 4 % 3 0 %

2 7 % 2 4 %

2 2 % 2 1 %

1 9 %

$ 7 0 . 6

1 8 %

$ 7 6 . 5

2 3 %

$ 8 4 . 8

2 9 %

$ 9 3 .1

3 4 %

$ 1 0 6 . 5

4 0 %

$ 1 2 1 . 7

4 6 %

$ 1 3 7. 9

5 1 %

$ 1 5 1 . 9

5 4 %

$ 1 6 5 . 9

5 7 %

$ 1 8 0 .1

5 9 %

2012 20172014 20192013 20182015 20202016 2021

C o m p o u n d A n n u a l G ro w t h R a t e

M o b i l e g a m e s

P C g a m e s

C o n s o l e g a m e s

R e v e n u e s , $ b i l l i o n

A s i a - Pa c i f i c re g i o n 5 2 %

2 1 %

2 3 %

4 %

E u ro p e , M i d d l e E a s t a n d Af r i c a

N o r t h A m e r i c a

+ 1 6 . 8 % a n n u a l g r o w t h r a t e

+ 1 0 % a n n u a l g r o w t h r a t e

+ 8 . 8 % a n n u a l g r o w t h r a t e

G l o b a l G a m e s M a r ke t Fo re c a s t f o r 2 0 1 8

L a t i n A m e r i c a+ 1 3 . 5 % a n n u a l g r o w t h r a t e

G l o b a l m a r ke t s h a re

TOP 25 PUBLIC COMPANIES BY GAME REVENUES IN 2017

Tencent+S23 Bandai Namco

Netmarble

Ubisoft

Nexon

Warner Bros*

TakeTwo Interactive

Square Enix

Mixi

$ 18 120 $ 2 428

Company Company Company$ Amount, M $ Amount, M $ Amount, M

1 10

Rank Rank Rank

Sony* $ 10 548 $ 2 2722 11

Apple* $ 8 037 $ 2 2083 12

Microsoft* $ 7 063 $ 2 0854 13

Activision Blizzard $ 6 513 $ 1 9365 14

NetEase $ 5 576 $ 1 9146 15

Google* $ 5 346 $ 1 7437 16

EA $ 5 095 $ 1 4818 17

Nintendo* $ 3 6259 NCSoft $ 1 45818

Cyber Agent $ 1 23219

Konami $ 1 07920

DeNA $ 89021

Disney* $ 87022

Perfect World* $ 86823

Sega $ 86024

37 Interactive* $ 85825

*based on estimates

The revenues of the companies that develop and sell video games can reach billions of dollars. There is one company that has its software development office in Ukraine among the top 25 businesses with the highest revenues in the gamedev sector, Ubisoft. In 2017, this French game developer has earned $2.2 billion.

Source: Newzoo

THE TIMELINE OF UKRAINIAN GAMEDEV INDUSTRY: MORE THAN 10 YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT

< 1 y e a r 6 - 1 0 y e a r s1 - 2 y e a r s > 1 0 y e a r s3 - 5 y e a r s

4 I N I N505 Ninja

N i k i t o S N a z

THE MAP OF UKRAINIAN GAMEDEV SECTOR: AN INDUSTRY THAT EMPLOYS THOUSANDS OF DEVELOPERS

> 5 0 0 e m p l o y e e s

1 0 0 - 5 0 0 e m p l o y e e s

5 0 - 1 0 0 e m p l o y e e s

1 0 - 5 0 e m p l o y e e s

< 1 0 e m p l o y e e s

Number of Employees in Ukraine

*

4 I N I N N i k i t o S N a z 505 Ninja

* ** **

** * *

* *

* global offices employees more than 500 ** global offices employees more than 100 *** global offices employees more than 50

*

** *

THE GAMEDEV INDUSTRY IN UKRAINE: PROFILE OF ACTIVITIES AND GEOGRAPHY OF HEADQUARTERS

C o u n t r i e s w h e re t h e H Q s o f t h e c o m p a n i e s a re l o c a t e d

T h e p ro f i l e o f a c t i v i t i e s o f U k ra i n i a n g a m e d ev c o m p a n i e s *

*The same company can be engaged in different types of activities

Gamdev companies which develop their own products

Outsourcing/outstuffing

Indie development

Provide services to gamedev companies

Consulting

Publishing

3 7, 5 %

1 7 %

6 9 %

2 5 %

1 5 %

1 7 %

Ukraine

US

Israel

France

Cyprus

Irland

Check Republic

Malta

Russia

China

Lithuania

Not indicated

7 4 %

6 %

5 %

3 %

3 %

1 %

1 %

1 %

1 %

1 %

1 %

3 %?

40% of gamedev companies in Ukraine have software development offices in Kyiv. Odessa takes the second place with 16% (17 companies). Other popular cities among gamedev providers are Dnipro (12 companies), Kharkiv (11 companies) and Lviv (6 comapnies).

THE MAP OF UKRAINIAN GAMEDEV COMPANIES*

V i n n i t s a

M y k o l a y i v

K r y v i y R i h

I v a n o -F r a n k i v s k

K r o p i v n i t s k y

Z a p o r i z h z h i a

P o l t a v a

R i v n e

O d e s s a

Lv i v

K h a r k i v

D n i p r o

K y i v

*Only companies that participated in the survey are included

40%40%

16%16%

6%6%5%5%

3%3%

2%2%

1%1%

11%11%

12%12%1%1%

1%1%1%1%

1%1%

The size and age of Ukrainian gamedev studios are quite diverse. 20% of the companies have only 1 game in their portfolio. At the same time, 25% have already released more than 10 games.

THE GAMEDEV INDUSTRY IN UKRAINE: FUNDING SOURCES AND THE NUMBER OF GAMES RELEASED

T h e N u m b e r o f G a m e s R e l e a s e d

F u n d i n g S o u rc e s

1 g a m e

2 - 5 g a m e s

5 -1 0 g a m e s

M o re t h a n 1 0 g a m e s

T h e c o m p a n y i s n o t d e ve l o p i n g i t s o w n g a m e s

2 1

1 8

5

1 4

1 3

T h e n u m b e r o f g a m e s T h e n u m b e r o f c o m p a n i e s

7 6 %

1 4 %

7 %

3 %

I n ve s t o r f ro m o t h e r s e c t o r

S e c t o r - f o c u s e d i n ve s t o r

S e l f - f u n d i n g

M i xe d f u n d i n g *

5 c o m p a n i e s

2 c o m p a n i e s

5 4 c o m p a n i e s

1 0 c o m p a n i e s

* A combination of self-funding and/or funding from sector-focused investor and/or funding from other sector investor and/or crowdsourcing

When it comes to funding, the picture is more homogeneous: more than 75% companies develop their business using money provided by their founders.

THE GAMEDEV INDUSTRY IN UKRAINE: PLATFORMS, TECHNOLOGIES AND GAME GENRES

Po p u l a r g a m e g e n re s ( c o m p a n i e s s h a re by g a m e s g e n re s )

Po p u l a r P l a t f o r m s ( c o m p a n i e s s h a re by p l a t f o r m )

Android

iOS

PC/Mac

Web browser

VR/AR Headsets

Xbox

PlayStation

Other mobile platforms

Nintendo Switch

Facebook

7 9 %

4 1 %

2 5 %

8 2 %

7 8 %

1 8 %

1 8 %

1 %

2 7 %

3 1 %

To p t e c h n o l o g i e s ( c o m p a n i e s by g a m e d eve l o p m e n t t e c h n o l o g i e s )

Unity

UnrealEngine

HTML5

Private game engine

Flash

Cocos2D

CryEngine

Corona

Amazon Lumberyard

DEFOLD

NeoAxis 3D Engine

Three.js

CONSTRUCT2

3 1 %

2 7 %

4 %

6 9 %

3 1 %

4 %

3 %

3 %

1 %

1 %

1 %

1 3 %

2 3 %

Action

4 4 % 5 9 %6 3 % 5 2 % 3 8 %

Simulators Strategies Puzzles Role-playing games

LET’S BUILD THE GAME DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY IN UKRAINE TOGETHER!

This guide has been jointly prepared by ACHIEVERS HUB and UNIT.City Innovation Park, which surveyed more than 70 Ukrainian game development companies and processed the collected data.

We invite the participants of game development market to cooperate and participate in the next surveys.The information will be updated on the UNIT.City gamedev page: gamedev.unit.city.

You can directly contact the authors of the guide:

Olena LobovaACHIEVERS HUB, Founderelena@a-hub.biz

Roman SudolskiyUNIT.City, Head of Contentrs@unit.city