A dense network of Italian talents operate globally in the video game industry, both in independent development companies and in large companies, often holding important roles. Starting from this assumption, the Excaliber by Giorgio Cataniaformerly of IIDEA, the sector’s trade association in Italy, promoted an in-depth investigation, presented at the Rome VideoGame Labto identify these professionals who work across borders.
The investigation aims to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of this creative diaspora, placing emphasis on possibility of their return to Italy to enrich and strengthen the national gaming industry with their acquired skills.
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Over 100 professionals working in responded to the appeal more than 80 companies, distributed in 18 foreign countries. 56% of them are under the age of 36 and 68% started working before the age of 30. Despite what, especially in Italy, could be interpreted as a young age, many work in the sector for more than 10 years and over half hold senior or lead roles.
Il United Kingdom it is the foreign country that welcomes the largest number of Italian professionals, follow the Sweden and the Spain. Overseas, the number of employees is decreasing and the reference countries are the United States, the Canada and Japan.
Second Gero Miccichè, development director of Electronic Artsunder the Criterion studio and currently working on the new one Battlefield, “the most searched for profiles are still highly specialized ones, programmers and software engineers of various types are in great demand. Today the experience with AI Programming has taken on greater appeal, but we are also looking for UI and UX experts on both the design and artistic levels. They are still in high demand i senior game designerthe technical artists, the VFX artists and since many medium and large teams are present in the UK, they are Producers are also in great demandthe good ones allow projects to go well while remaining within budget and on time, maintaining high quality”.
Like other international realities, also the English game industry suffers the consequences of inflationbut what has the greatest impact is the significant reduction in the possibility of importing talent resident outside the United Kingdom, as Miccichè confirmed to us: “From my Game Production course I would have liked to give a chance to young producers here in Great Britain, but now it’s very difficult because for them it would be necessary pay a Skilled Worker VISA (a visa, ed.) rather onerous for companies, which rightly now reserve that budget mainly for senior profiles. On the other hand, the United Kingdom still enjoys the largest number of study courses, including university ones, aimed at video game development compared to other European countries, and there is a greater possibility of training new graduates internally”.
Although the entire sector is hit by a heavy wave of layoffs, many reports show optimism for the future of gaming in the UK: “The Data City estimated a few months ago that employment in the English game industry could reach 60,000 workers by 2025, compared to the current 40,000, and that the sector could be worth around £29.5 billion by 2027. The British game industry can indeed count on government funding and tax breaks, as well as a large number of venture capitalists. The real challenge today remains finding talent, it is not easy to find professionals with an adequate level of skills and for this reason, despite the layoffs, there are still many open positions in the various development studios”.
Returning to the study, 65% of the interested sample owns it at least a three-year degree and 78% completed their studies in Italy, thus confirming that our country has started good training courses. Alessio Giuseppe Calì, gameplay programmer at Larian, a studio he developed Baldur’s Gate 3a title that has sold over 10 million copies hoarding prizes, he told us that “after completing my three-year degree in Engineering in Catania, I looked for a course on software architecture, then moved to the Polytechnic of Turin. Initially I didn’t think about going to work abroad or even in the video game industry. Then meeting people and motivating each other, we decided. To clarify, two other friends from the Turin experience have left Italy and work in the game industry, one for Unity and the other for Gameloft Barcelona. The environment at Poli in Turin was very proactive and pushed students to enhance their abilities and follow their ambitions.”
Calì found himself sending CVs as a junior programmer abroad, his first job was at Ubisoft Sofia in Bulgariawhere he initially worked on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, then he moved to Larian: “Here I found very passionate and courageous people and this is reflected in their games. In the studio there is a lot of attention to diversity and inclusion, we are a varied multicultural team with an English majority that gives importance to everyone’s contribution, guaranteeing a creative freedom that I have not found in other realities where I worked.” Working in international, multicultural, inclusive and diversity-sensitive teams is an important factor for many of the survey participants.
85% of the sample has worked in at least 3 companies during their career and more than half are employed in reality with over 250 employees, including Activision Blizzard, Apple, CD Projekt Red, Electronic Arts, HoYoverse, Lirian Studios, Remedy, Rockstar and Ubisoft. Two out of four are employed with permanent contracts, 78% received a promotion after being hired and the majority of the sample is satisfied with the position they currently hold. 69% of employees earn more than 50 thousand euros gross per year and over 20% reach more than 100 thousand. It is interesting to note how all of the people interviewed consider their salary “adequate to the cost of living” of the country in which they reside.
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According to Miccichè in Italy, senior profiles are especially lacking because they are those created by an industrial fabric that is still growing timidly in our country: “On the contrary, although there are still few schools with courses aimed at developing video games, I meet many promising and motivated juniors. After all, Italy has always been a country of extraordinary creatives, they exist many Italians who work and grow well in this industrybut they are often forced to emigrate to grow and gain experience, and to have an adequate salary.”
From the research conducted by Catania it emerges that work in a foreign country However, it also has negative sides: among the first, the distance from loved ones, the differences and, especially at the beginning, the language barrier. Despite these obvious inconveniences, to stop the diaspora and bring talent back to our country we would need higher salaries and greater stability of contracts, a more mature work culture and the elimination of toxic behaviors, as well as incentives for the creation of new companies and the development of high profile productions.
Although the global video game industry is going through a severe crisis that sees the daily loss of jobs73% of those interviewed said they were optimistic not only about the entire sector, but also about their working future.