When we talk about Turkey, mobile games are now among the first digital industries that come to mind. The perception within the country has begun to change rapidly due to successful game companies emerging from here and the employment opportunities provided. However, a wave is on the way, and soon we will be talking about other things.
Colors Beyond Black and White
The way to actually deal with the whole process is to put aside our mechanical glasses. If we were to interpret everything with zeros and ones, we would have to see the entire game industry producing mobile games, with a few exceptions. Because employment is dense here, salaries aren't bad, and let's face it, it's a guaranteed field. It attracts investors' interest, and it's easier to progress through the production process. But wait a minute...
Production here is not done with machines in factories. People are the main force of production, and the majority of those who seize employment opportunities are individuals with high creative intelligence who can pursue their dreams.
This is precisely why they are turning their wheels towards independent development to chase their dreams, away from mobile game development where they exhaust their creativity. In colloquial terms, this shows a similar motivation to white-collar workers opening third-generation coffee shops. Making games is already an enjoyable job. Why shouldn't they enjoy making a game the way they want?
The Year of the PC
Developers are giving up advantageous packages, including their salaries, and setting up independent game studios. "Why give up? Aren't they still developing games?". Yes, they are still fundamentally making games. However, in a more disadvantaged area. Investors in Turkey are not too keen on the idea of making profits after years. On the other hand, our knowledge pool for marketing PC or console games is quite limited as a country. Therefore, it's not possible to run high-profit operations.
Despite all these, the career journey that started with mobile is shifting towards independent development for many employees in recent times. This directly affects both the number of productions and the number of high-potential projects.
Will a supply-demand balance work here? Well, the future will show us the answer. A few successful releases and some well-known names in strong projects could change investors' view of the field. Of course, as more projects are produced, there is a high chance that we will see the strengthening of muscles like marketing.
Of course, the possibility of encountering a sad picture should not be forgotten. Thousands of games that cannot open a few sales on digital platforms are lying in their small graves. And their numbers are increasing every day. It's possible that we may see things going in different directions with a reverse flow before the independent game industry fully matures.
2023 will definitely be an interesting year, that's for sure.
