David 
07/04/2014
FLEGA is currently compiling a report on the Flemish videogames industry. We’re gathering soft and hard facts to be able to better map the gaming activity in our region. The report will be made available in June, but for the meantime we will already be sharing some interesting facts and figures in a series of blog posts.
Today, let’s take a closer look at the videogames industry in our region courtesy of two economic mappings of our sector conducted by the Antwerp Management School (AMS): the previous study including data from 2008 and the most recent study including data from 2010.
The amount of self-employment in our business has increased to 55.18% from 2008 to 2010. The same positive evolution can be seen for the number of employers. The most important development lies in the volume of employees. This figure has almost tripled from 101 to 289 people working in our videogames industry. The most important sub-categories for Flanders’ videogames business are Game Development and Supplementary Creative & Technical Functions.
The previous mapping of the sector by AMS indicated that there were no figures available for the supplementary functions whereas now we see that this category is a big part of the sector as it provided employment for 129 people in 2010.
The slight decrease in employers is more than compensated by the upsurge of self-employed developers. The total generated revenue of local game developers and adjacent functions in Belgium in 2010 was a dazzling €39.527.386 and the total added value rose by a whopping 467% compared to 2008. Using a 60/40 equation between Flanders and Walloon this represents about €24 million generated revenue in Flanders.
The Belgian Entertainment Association estimates that the total revenue of the entire Belgian gaming industry counts up to €198.07 million in 2012, effectively including all retail activity (meaning all physical games sold at retail and all digital games legally downloaded).
Newzoo research (2012) estimates this value is a lot higher and amounts to approximately €390 million. Using a 60/40 equation between Flanders and Walloon, Newzoo estimates that the Flemish gaming industry would stand for revenue between €118.84 and €234 million for 2012.
There is enough hard evidence to conclude that the gaming industry is growing in Flanders and should be given both time and resources to stimulate future growth.
Sources: Antwerp Management School (AMS), UGent (Digimeter), Newzoo and Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA).
