Sweden is a nation steeped in games. We have a great games industry that, year after year, delivers high quality games to the global market. Sweden has one of the oldest games industries in the world, going all the way back to the 1980s pioneer company Target Games (and long before that, Sweden was a market leader in traditional board and family games). 

Sweden may be one of the world’s top 10 countries for games and game tech development but this is only true when talking about the southern part of Sweden. In the north, the games industry has been underdeveloped for many years, with the exception of Umeå where the industry gained a foothold in the early 2000s. 

Therefore the focus of the Arctic Game Lab is to support, and be a part of the creation, of a stable gaming industry platform in the north of Sweden.

Since 2016, a regional investment in the gaming industry – funded by the municipalities of Umeå, Skellefteå, Piteå, Luleå and Boden – has been underway in northern Sweden. Skellefteå Science City is tasked with driving this initiative, with financial support from the municipalities, local regions and the EU project, Innovation Game 2.0.

Goals

The overall goals for Arctic Game Lab are:

1000 students  studying at a game educations in our region

100 game companies in our region

10 game successes at any of the game companies in our region

1 region that we call Arctic Game Lab

INNOVATION GAME 2.0

Innovation Game 2.0 started in the summer of 2019. The project goal is to strengthen the gaming industry in the region by contributing to a more diverse and inclusive labor market. We want an industry that contributes to the development of innovation know-how in other industries, attracts the migration and formation of companies and reduces the flight of skills.

• Increased visibility
• Increased expertise in the innovation and education systems
• More gaming innovations 
• More investments
• More meeting places