Weekly News 5

Play Finland’s Weekly Newsletter

In this report we will combine week 5/2021 from the Finnish Game Industry and will be posted every Friday afternoon. Check out the previous post here.

News are gathered from the Play Finland group posts during the week. That is why we recommend you to post by yourself (however not flood) your Finnish Game Industry related news to the group. It also guarantees that your news will be visible in the weekly newsletter /news compilation. Play Finland is at the moment one of the main channels for sharing information inside the industry.

Best Regards,
Neogames Finland

 Events:

• 8-12 February Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #5
  • IGDA Mentor Cafe
• 15th February Games Now! open lecture series at Aalto University; “Building Sustainable Gaming Cultures” (online)
• 15-19th March GDC showcase
• 29th March Games Now! open lecture series at Aalto University; “Fostering Playful Experiences with Wearables” (online)
• March 2021(Date tbc) British Academy Games Awards
  • Tuesday 2 March 2021 – Nominations announced
  • March 2021 (Date tbc) – British Academy Games Awards
• 19th April Games Now! open lecture series at Aalto University; “Next Generation of Interactive Streaming” (online)
• 3rd May Games Now! open lecture series at Aalto University; “Art of Learning by Doing – The Great Game Jam Panel” (online)
• 19th-23rd of July GDC 2021
• 14-15th October W Love Games
  • SUBMIT A TALK 
  • SUBMIT A WORKSKOP
  • The recorded sessions from W Games 2020 are now available on website

See also The Game Industry Events calendar

 Announcements:

• Game Studies Thesis Competition 2021 is open until February 28th.
• Outi Laiti’s doctoral thesis explores the potential of game development events to empower the cultural self-expression of Sámi people.
• The multiplayer hit [Brawl Stars] the fourth title from Supercell to pass the $1 billion mark, following in the footsteps of Clash of Clash, Clash Royale and Hay Day.
• Joakim Achrén joins Play Ventures!
• Hatch is not shutting down!
  “Hatch Premium was our first live service powered by the Hatch Streaming technology. Launching across many countries in Europe, South Korea, Japan, and most recently the US throughout 2018-2019, it offered over 100 mobile games to its users, ranging from casual games to high-fidelity racing to fast-paced action titles. Hatch partnered with some of the world’s largest operators to bring game streaming to mobile users across the globe for the first time.
  Early 2020, we made a decision to ramp down the Hatch Premium service and refocus the company resources to develop our core streaming technology further to power the future of gaming and enable the creation of cloud-native games. In addition, we have been in the soft launch with the Hatch Kids edutainment service targeting younger audiences.
  We believe that the future of gaming is cloud native and Hatch continues actively working towards that goal going forward as well. — Juhani, CEO of Hatch Entertainment”
• Bonus Stage Publishing are looking for games to publish
  

• The application period for January round of Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Regional Funds is on. Games are mentioned, so don’t hesitate to apply. The period ends 10.2.2021 16:00. Remember, this is a cultural foundation, so think about the artistic and cultural aspects of your game, and how it could improve the society and quality of life.

 Discussion

• Jessica Soueidi asks if it is possible to host an art exhibition in a video game? Minecraft, Animal crossing or something else?

Other News 

• Licia Prehn is honoured to be taking part in Devcom’s Call For Change summit on diversity, inclusion, and accessibility! Tickets are FREE, so sign up.
• XR Nation Citizen’s Spotlight: MiTale
• The PX Hub blog post: A Guide to Building Killer Player Support Operations
• Games Factory Talents team is sharing their experiences of Finnish Games Career Day 2020
• Kayo Games: Face to face with a Python snake in Augmented Reality. Try it here.