Belarus Stays Without Game Studios
5- 9.01.2025, 9:22
- 5,956
The main losses of 2024.
The Belarusian game business, which in the 2010s conquered the world with its unique products, is experiencing bad times today. Some studios have closed down. Some of them have been sold. Some of them emigrated. Some are trying to find a niche in the changed configurations of the market and the world.
The portal ‘Belarusians and the Market’ has looked at who in this once powerful segment, which occupied the first places in the world tops, did not survive the past year at home.
The Veteran Is No Longer There
The disappearance of the veteran - Steel Monkeys studio - from this market remained unnoticed by the majority.
It was created in 2005 by the pioneer in this niche - Tsimafei Dvoskin.
Steel Monkeys had studios in Minsk and Vancouver, and was a HTP resident. The developer started with products for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, then switched to iOS and Android. In recent years it has been trying to get into developing products for virtual and augmented reality and AAA games. Games listed in its portfolio include I, Gladiator and I, Viking.
Tsimafei Dvoskin's LinkedIn profile states that he left Steel Monkeys' management back in 2019 and has been working at game development company of Saber Interactive for five years.
As for the legal entity Steel Monkeys (‘Steel Monkeys Company’), it was liquidated in the summer of 2024.
Who Else
Wargaming Group, which managed to sell its business to Russian managers before the window of opportunity closed, left Belarus back in 2022.
During 2023 the process of leaving the business, closing studios and emigrating became massive.
Playgendary, Zephyr Mobile, Bit Media Soft, Battle Hive, Fun Craft Games, ‘Fortunatum’, HitBox - this is by no means a complete list of well-known and start-up studios that liquidated their offices in Belarus in 2023.
The situation with the Minsk office of one of the world leaders in the game development segment - the Irish Playrix - is indicative. Its owners, the Bukhman brothers, as well as Viktar Kislyi, found a Russian buyer for the asset. The latter renamed the company BRIG Studio. But it existed only until the end of 2023. And it was closed down as well.
Last year, the list of game development companies, which shut down their business in Belarus, has grown significantly.
The portal highlighted the main losses of 2024.
They include two businesses from the ‘big eight’ Belarusian game developers.
These are Belka Games and ‘Kazhigulni,’ under which the SayGames publisher has been operating in Belarus since 2022. Both companies are liquidated during 2024.
Two large foreign businesses have also left this segment. These are the Israeli company of Skywind Group and the Swedish Evolution Gaming Group, a holding company from the global Forbes top-2000. Their subsidiaries are still in liquidation.
Several less well-known companies have ceased operations. In particular, Purple Games and Russian HappyGames Studio.
In parallel, the process of renaming businesses, either within the framework of geographical division or change of ownership, has been going on for the last two years.
Thus, the Belarusian Vizor Games is now GameTech, and Gismart is now Procod Dev.
Playday became Game Evolution, Primeta Gaming - SnakyGames, and Trulli Social Gaming BiWay - GameBlox BiWay.
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