Paths to success: A research project on the Danish game industry

• Fall 2020 – Pitch to Game Hub 2.0 partners for doing follow-up research on their Interreg project Game Hub 2.0. Promised delivery of follow-up evaluation report, early prototyping of company evaluation tool, and first-ever research on the Danish games industry with emphasis on success factors.
  
  
• Spring and Summer 2021 – Data collection begins with interviewing game companies in Denmark, regardless of their size. Both quantitative and qualitative data is gathered about each company, their parameters for success, as well as their own opinions and experiences on making games in Denmark and what could be improved.  
  
  
• Fall 2021 – A detailed and comprehensive analysis of the games that the interviewed companies have released over the years. Existing interview data is transcribed, analyzed, and segmented into a larger database more easily analyzed through probabilistic modelling. Company evaluation tool prototype finished and presented in Aalborg.
  
  
• Spring 2022 – Evaluation report of Game Hub 2.0’s activities and insights is written, delivered, and presented to Game Hub 2.0 consortium in Viborg. Ongoing interviews with game companies to expand and build on the existing database.  Expert interviews to assess the success criteria.
  
  
• October 2022. First research publication titled ‘Predicting Success Factors of Video Game Titles and Companies’ at the ICEC 2022.
  Pfau, Johannes, Michael Debus, Jesper Juul, Emil Lundedal Hammar, Alessandro Canossa, and Magy Seif El-Nasr. 2022. “Predicting Success Factors of Video Game Titles and Companies.” In Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2022, edited by Barbara Göbl, Erik van der Spek, Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, and Rod McCall, 269–82. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20212-4_22.
  
  
• Fall 2022 – The data collection from 2021 and 2022 is gathered and summarized into key insights at both qualitative and quantitative levels, as well as recommendations.
  
  
• Spring 2023 – Iterations and finalization of the report on the Danish games industry, "Paths to Success: Data and Lessons from Danish Game Companies. Findings & Recommendations for the Danish Games Industry" by Emil Lundedal Hammar, Michael S. Debus, Jesper Juul, Alessandro Canossa.
  
  
• June 2023 – Public release of the report on the Danish games industry. Presentation of our research findings at the Danish Ministry of Culture. Media interviews in Ingeniøren, Hardwire, and DR’s P1 radio station.
  
  
• July 2023 – Second research publication titled ‘From Teams to Games: Connecting Game Development Teams and Game Experiences’ presented at HCI 2023
  
  
• August 2023 – The plan to establish a Danish Games Institute is publicly announced as part of the government’s Finance Act that grants 34 million DKK over 4 years for the first games-focused institute. Media interviews in radio and newspapers using our expert assessment on this initiative.

• June 20, 2023: "Ny stor rapport kortlægger den danske spilindustris udfordringer: Der er brug for et spilinstitut". Hardwire.dk.
• June 20, 2023: "Forsker efterlyser dansk spilinstitut: “Vi går glip af store økonomiske og kulturelle gevinster”. Hardwire.dk.
• June 21, 2023: "Forskere savner et dansk spilinstitut og en vampyrmassegrav", DR Radio.
• August 29, 2023: "Millioner skal sætte Danmark på spillekortet: Der er et kæmpe potentiale, siger ekspert". TV2 News.
• August 29, 2023. "Regeringen vil oprette nyt spilinstitut". DR Radio.

Magy Seif El-Nasr
Professor
University of Santa Cruz

Johannes Pfau
Postdoc.
University of Santa Cruz

Michael S. Debus
research assistant