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Video games in Poland

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Poland is a major video game market and home to one of the largest video game industries in the world. CD Projekt, developer of The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, is based in Poland. A significant portion of the Polish population plays video games, and Poland is the home to a developing esports market.

Market

As of 2021, 97% of spending on video games in Poland is spent on foreign titles.[1] The Polish gaming market was valued about US$924.2 million in 2020, with an esports market valued at US$11.5 million.[2] Of game localizations on Steam, Polish typically ranks between the 9th or 10th most popular language of localization. There are 20 million video game players in Poland; of this group, over 80% are adults and about 49% are women.[3] The Polish video game market has been described as emerging from the practice of trading pirated video games as a way of experiencing western culture under the Polish People's Republic.[4] Poland hosts the esports tournament Intel Extreme Masters, which draws hundreds of millions of viewers.[4] Among Polish citizens interested in esports, FIFA, League of Legends, and Counter-Strike were the most popular games as of 2020.[5] Notable esports players from Poland include Counter-Strike player NEO and Quake player Av3k.

Development

File:REDengine 4 Environment.png
A game being developed in REDengine 4 by Polish company CD Projekt.

As of 2021, 96% of revenue in the Polish gaming industry comes from exporting video games to foreign countries, and the Polish gaming industry employed 12,110 people across 470 game companies.[6] The largest video game company in Poland is CD Projekt.[7] CD Projekt is most well known for developing action role-playing games, such as The Witcher video game series and Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt also operates the global video game distribution platform GOG.com.[8] In 2019, Poland was the largest video game exporter in Europe and the fourth largest in the world, largely due to the success of The Witcher.[9] The Polish government has invested into the country's video game industry and sees it as a vehicle for growth. Heavy emphasis on math in the Polish school curriculum has also been credited for the success of Poland's video game industry.[4][10]

Several other Polish video game studios have developed video games to international acclaim. Flying Wild Hog is the developer of the Shadow Warrior series. Techland was the developer of Call of Juarez, Dead Island, and Dying Light. Bloober Team has developed several horror games, including Layers of Fear and The Medium. Ten Square Games has developed several successful mobile games. 11 Bit Studios was the developer of This War of Mine and Frostpunk. The Polish government placed This War of Mine on the official school reading list in 2020, making it the first video game to be put on such a list by a national government.[10][11] The Polish game development industry has been praised for contributing to and spreading Poland's cultural heritage.[12][13]

Notable Polish video games

This is a list of notable video games that were primarily developed in Poland and sold at least one million units.

Title Release date Developer Ref
Cyberpunk 2077 December 10, 2020 CD Projekt Red [14]
Dead Island September 6, 2011 Techland [15]
Dying Light January 27, 2015 Techland [16]
Dying Light 2 February 4, 2022 Techland [16]
Frostpunk April 24, 2018 11 Bit Studios [17]
Outriders April 1, 2021 People Can Fly [18]
Superhot February 25, 2016 Superhot Team [19]
Superhot VR December 5, 2016 Superhot Team [20]
This War of Mine November 14, 2014 11 Bit Studios [13]
The Witcher October 26, 2007 CD Projekt Red [21]
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings May 17, 2011 CD Projekt Red [22]
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt May 19, 2015 CD Projekt Red [14]

References

  1. ^ Rutkowski, Marszałkowski & Biedermann 2021, p. 7.
  2. ^ Rutkowski, Marszałkowski & Biedermann 2021, p. 37.
  3. ^ Rutkowski, Marszałkowski & Biedermann 2021, pp. 38–39.
  4. ^ a b c Koper, Anna; Kahn, Michael (2020-01-23). "From Communist-era roots to cash cows: Poland's gaming industry takes on the world". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  5. ^ "The most popular eSports games in Poland". Polish Gamers Observatory. 2021-01-19. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  6. ^ Rutkowski, Marszałkowski & Biedermann 2021, pp. 7–8.
  7. ^ Rutkowski, Marszałkowski & Biedermann 2021, p. 10.
  8. ^ Rutkowski, Marszałkowski & Biedermann 2021, p. 21.
  9. ^ Kraków, Kafkadesk (2019-10-29). "Poland is now fourth largest exporter of video games in the world". Kafkadesk. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  10. ^ a b Đorđević, Nikola (2020-10-14). "Taking gaming seriously has paid off for Poland". Emerging Europe. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  11. ^ Tilles, Daniel (2020-06-18). "Poland puts computer game "This War of Mine" on school reading list". Notes From Poland. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  12. ^ Lewandowski, Marcin (2020-12-22). "Poland's thriving video game industry is ready to step out of CD Projekt's shadow". Notes From Poland. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  13. ^ a b Đorđević, Nikola (2021-02-15). "Why video gaming is set to become Poland's national cultural brand". Emerging Europe. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  14. ^ a b LeBlanc, Wesley. "The Witcher 3 Has Sold More Than 40 Million Copies, Cyberpunk 2077 Surpasses 18 Million". Game Informer. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  15. ^ Pitts, Russ (16 July 2014). "From Dead Island to Dying Light". Polygon. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  16. ^ a b "Dying Light 2: Stay Human sales top five million in one month; Dying Light 1 tops 20 million". Gematsu. 2022-04-22. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  17. ^ Taylor, Haydn. "Frostpunk sells 1.4m units in first year". GameIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  18. ^ Prescott, Shaun (May 20, 2021). "More Outriders games are likely thanks to 3.5 million players milestone". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  19. ^ Taylor, Ivy (2019-05-28). "Superhot passes two million lifetime sales". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  20. ^ Hayden, Scott (2021-02-25). "'Superhot VR' on Quest Surpasses 1 Million Units Sold, Quest 2 Sales Outperform All Platforms". Road to VR. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  21. ^ Lee, James (2008-10-31). "The Witcher hits 1 million sales". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  22. ^ Dutton, Fred (30 May 2012). "The Witcher 2 sales top 1.7 million". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 2022-05-12.

Bibliography

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