While some of the folks in Finland have been enjoying their winter holidays this week, the Finnish Games Industry shows no signs of rest, with big news continuing to roll in. Sam Lake is set to receive this year's Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards 2025, honoring his outstanding contributions (huge congratulations!), while Nitro Games delights by reporting a record-breaking $12.3 million revenue for 2024. As a wind of change, Fingersoft's COO Ville Rauma has announced his departure from the company. Wishing enjoyable winter holidays to those who are starting theirs!
This week, we have big news again from the Finnish Game Industry: Supercell blew the roof off the mobile market by announcing a staggering $3 billion in revenue for 2024. Housemarque has unveiled its next game, Saros, set for release in 2026, continuing the studio’s track record of quality-high-profile console launches. Remedy Entertainment also has good news, as Alan Wake 2 has recouped its development costs, and the company’s annual revenue has surged by 49%. Looking ahead, they have also confirmed that Alan Wake 3 and Control 3 are in the pipeline, with releases planned for 2029 and 2030.
The Finnish Game Industry demonstrates its diversity in game development across multiple platforms and developer scales. Indie talent is showing strong presence, with End-all Entertainment—recipient of last year’s IGDA Finland grant—releasing a demo of Paradigm Island, and Finnish developers accounting for nearly 10% of participants and games at Global Game Jam 2025. At the same time, industry giants remain solid: Supercell reports rising Hay Day user engagement through “growth virality” after 12 years, and Metacore solidifies its position as the leading benchmark for casual and Merge2 games. Speaking of different platforms, Ridge Racer 64 arrives on Nintendo Switch Online. Alan Wake 2 becoming the first game to support Mega Geometry Technology is clear evidence of Finland’s strong technological foundation.
This week, Finnish game industry news are; Fingersoft appointing Teemu Närhi as its new CEO and Kukouri Mobile Entertainment shutting down game operations while selling its IPs to Social First. Also, remember that there is only one week left to update the list of Finnish games released in 2024. Today is also the last day to apply Oulu Game Industry Pre-Incubator. Good news for jobseekers is that now you can sign up for Rovio's job alerts.
This week, the Finnish game industry—particularly Sam Lake and Remedy Entertainment—received another well-deserved recognition by being honored with the Andrew Yoon Legend Award. Pocket Gamer London attracted several Finnish game developers (among many other nationalities) to participate in the event this week. An important note: Neogames is compiling a list of Finnish games set to release in 2024 and urgently needs community support to ensure the list is complete and accurate. Please make sure your game is included. Junior developers are also in focus, with the bit1 competition now open and applications for the Oulu Game Industry Pre-Incubator underway. Last but not least, this weekend marks the Global + Finnish Game Jams.
Neogames is listing commercial games released globally in 2024 by Finnish Game Developers (Please note that in mobile, only games with global release for the first time should be included, but in PC / Steam early access games are also accepted. However, if Steam early access game is in the list this year, its not any more eligible for future voting after final launch.)
Games are listed alphabetically by company / developer name. This list will also serve as the basis for Pelinkehittäjät ry voting on some of the nominees for the Finnish Game Awards and Nordic Game Awards.
Let us know what’s missing or correct any errors by emailing us at suviATneogamesDOTfi. Deadline for game list updates is 7th of February.
The year 2025 is kicking off in practice! WonderHive has pivoted, secured an investment from SISU Ventures, and is now known as Playnest. Neogames has reviewed the year 2024 in The Finnish Game Industry, highlighting key achievements and Neogames’ own activities. The Think Ink competition, themed "Gaming in Media," awarded €100,000 to Platonic Partnership’s Metapress gamification platform, inspiring fresh ideas for journalism. However, not all news is positive, as Huuuge's Helsinki studio will be closed. Next week brings Pocket Gamer Connects London, followed by the Game Jam weekend starting on 24th February.
The year 2024 was not an easy one for the global game industry, and Finland faced its share of challenges. Several studios closed their doors; however, new ones were also established. While layoffs occurred, particularly in small and mid-sized studios, larger companies continued to grow their headcounts. The beginning of the year was particularly challenging from an investment perspective, but conditions improved toward the end.
Welcome back to work, and I hope you have a great start to the year 2025! You can start by checking the impressive highlights of IGDA Finland's Year 2024 and celebrate the long-awaited release of the legendary, award-winning My Summer Car game, which is finally out of early access after nine years. The Neogames team visited this week at Business Finland and met with its new CEO, Lassi Noponen. Regarding to Business Finland, don’t forget to register for their upcoming online info session on R&D funding for the creative industries. In addition, new educational programs for the game industry are kicking off, so the application period is now open.