Istanbul expo brings thousands of gamers to Turkey

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s largest digital entertainment and game expo, ‘Gaming Istanbul’ opened Thursday bringing together thousands of developers, gamers and investors.

Over 300 software companies, game developers and leading businesses from the digital world gathered at Istanbul Congress Center.

Bartosz Skwarczek, CEO and co-founder of G2A.com, the world’s fastest-growing online video game distribution marketplace, spoke to Anadolu Agency.

Skwarczek said that Turkey is the biggest digital game market in Europe with more than 77 million people, 40 percent of whom have an Internet connection at home.

Skwarczek highlighted that Turkey has potential in the digital game market in terms of the number of players: “There are 22.5 million gamers in Turkey. I believe this can be much more.”

"Twenty-five percent of Turkish players are under the age of 25 … It means that every year new players come and play."

"The purchase investment per customer is $30 in Turkey, compared to Poland, for instance, where it is about $60, $120 in Taiwan [and] higher in the U.S. and Japan,” Skwarczek added.

The G2A.com chief praised the Gaming Istanbul event, saying: “It’s like a trigger to bring more players, more business partners … and everyone in the [digital] industry.”

The total volume of the world’s digital game industry was $88 billion in 2015, bigger than the music and film sectors combined according to a recent report published by the Digital Game Developers’ Association.

“Gaming is the new Hollywood,” Skwarczek says.

Turkey’s digital game market was worth an estimated $418 million in 2015, with an annual growth rate of 7.18 percent, below the world average of 8.1 percent.

Gaming Istanbul is the first organization in Turkey to have has collected over 300 national and international game studios, software creators, even academic institutions, however today’s event “should not be last”, Skwarczek said.

Visitors have the chance to meet their favorite game’s developers, wear their digital characters’ costumes, or just play games endlessly.

The trade show will run until Sunday night.