Survey suggests Hamburg’s games industry workforce has doubled to 1700 since 2004
Germany’s second-largest city, Hamburg, is in love with its video games.
A recent survey of the area has revealed that the industry workforce there has more than doubled in the past five years, and the market itself has for the first time overtaken the music industry’s.
Market analysis conducted by the gamecity:Hamburg network suggests that the area will see some 300 new, full-time game industry jobs arrive this year, amounting to a growth rate of 17.5 percent. The report points out that an additional 150 freelance jobs will be created this year.
Perhaps more striking is that Hamburg’s games industry workforce stood at around 800 back in 2004. Just five years later, and that figure has more than doubled to 1,700.
The data for this was sought from 190 “gaming-related” companies, of which there were around 60 developers and publishers.
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Furthermore, the German Trade Association of Interactive Entertainment Software (BIU) had recently reported a 14 percent increase in game sales across 2008, an increase which saw the game market push past the music market for the very first time in the area.
However, of the 190 companies surveyed, only 35 were prepared to talk about revenue expectations in the current year. Five of the 35 believed they would make a loss this year, while the other thirty said they expected gains.
Hope they're all making kids games.
lol
I cannot for the life of me think of any studios in Hamburg.
@BC
...Why? Only games that depict gratuitous violence have problems in Germany. Are you saying that you only know of kids games or games that are gratuitously violence? Maybe you need a better games education.
@ z_m
Ignorance is bliss.
News about the game industry growing is something to celebrate, especially when many studios around the world are in financial trouble or have ceased to exist. Well done Hamburg and apologies for the previous posters' witless and snidey remarks.
