eGames Lab Portugal, integrated by PACT, present at the Gamescom 2023 International Fair
28 August 2023
During the past week, the eGames Lab Portugal consortium participated in the international gaming fairs Devcom and Gamescom, considered the largest fairs in the area of video games in the world. The events took place in Cologne, Germany, between the 20th and 27th of this month and had 320 thousand visitors from 100 countries and 1,220 exhibitors from 60 countries.
The eGames Lab is a consortium made up of 22 Portuguese entities, public and private, namely technology companies, incubators, municipalities and associations, which covers the country from Évora to Lisbon, Madeira and the Azores. The project, which is co-financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) and the European Union’s NextGeneration, and which has PACT – Alentejo Science and Technology Park as one of the members, aims to respond to specific technological and operational challenges identified in Portugal, which will leverage the video game industry and position them in a global context.
The project was represented in its own stand in the main indie games hall (10.1) of the event and its participation had as its ultimate purpose the public presentation of the games developed in the last nine months by the various members of the consortium. On display was the video game Hanno, by the studio One Way Eleven, which was played by more than 100 visitors. In the space dedicated to the Portuguese project, trailers for the following games were also shown: KEO and Hovershock, by Redcatpig; Augmented Reality Sports Data Live Games, by FootAr; Wasted Rush, by Walkme; Furzies, Linea and Swipe, from Infinity Games; Yacooba.
In addition, the consortium fulfilled one of the fundamental objectives of the project: to establish the first international bridges between the work to be developed by the Portuguese cluster with the international industry, more specifically with the main players in the gaming sector, such as potential investors and customers, creating international business networks.
This was an important moment for the video game industry in Portugal, as well as for the development of the country’s economy with a great impact on the retention of highly qualified young talent in areas as diverse as design, storytelling, computer engineering, marketing and visual arts. The work of the consortium will thus allow to diversify the Portuguese economic fabric, increasing the country’s competitiveness in the IT and Web 3.0 sectors.
In addition, eGames Lab Portugal aims to attract the main players in the sector to Portugal, enhancing the creation of a sustainable and lasting ecosystem for the design and development of games, also aiming at the successful introduction into the market of the results of creative research and development efforts in the field of interactive entertainment.
It should be noted that the overall investment of this project reaches 32 million euros, being part of the Mobilizing Agendas for Business Innovation, and has as key areas: Blockchain Structure for video games; Virtual and augmented reality in the game; Transformational games for health and ecological footprint; Artificial intelligence for the creation of game storytelling; Development of pre-market ecosystems.
For more information about the eGames Lab, visit https://www.egameslab.pt./
