Catalonia is the European Union region that attracted the most foreign investment in the video games sector between 2017 and 2021. This is underlined by a study carried out by Acció, the competitiveness agency for the Regional Ministry of Enterprise and Employment, based on the fDi Markets database. Overall, the autonomous community has attracted 12.2% of all foreign investment in the EU over the past five years.

Catalonia's leadership is not only reflected in the volume of investment, which amounted to around 120 million euros during the period analysed; the region also ranks first in terms of the number of international studio investment projects -a total of 20. These figures have also served to create 900 new jobs, which puts it in second place in terms of employment generated by these investments.

Main investments
The main investments came from the United States, France, Sweden and South Korea. Companies with a presence in the region make up 40% of the world's largest companies. Notable names include France's Ubisoft, US firm Scopely, South Korea's Smilegate, British company King and Japan's Bandai Namco. The period between 2017 and-2021 did in addition see deals such as the acquisition of the Catalan company Digital Legends by Activesion Blizzard, which was in turn  acquired by Microsoft.

Many of the video games developed in Catalonia are among those with the highest budgets and the highest sales levels in the market. In addition, Acció is currently working on 40 possible new foreign investment operations in the sector. The hope is that these will give a boost to new technology trends in Catalonia, such as the metaverse, virtual and augmented reality, serious games and eSports.

Government priorities
The President of the Regional Government of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès, said that “the quest for foreign investment and support for companies that have already made a commitment to Catalonia is one of the government’s priorities”. Its goal, he explained, is to consolidate the region “as one of the most important hubs in this field in Europe”, and “to continue to showcase Catalonia as having an economy based on creativity, talent, entrepreneurship and innovation”.

The Regional Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Roger Torrent, described the sector as “a driving force for other economic sectors and fundamental for the future”. He also stressed that foreign companies in the sector are investing in Catalonia “because we have been able to create the right conditions, and because here we have talent, and that attracts more talent”.

^{Photo: Ubisoft}