The international games industry meets in Hamburg – 500 guests at the Hamburg Games Conference 2023

Welcoming the games world on-site in Hamburg: 500 conference guests and 50 speakers traveled from 26 countries to the 14th Hamburg Games Conference on March 1 and 2. An additional 600 guests visited the conference’s expo area which was open to the public during the conference. Over the two days of the conference, a total of 17 presentations, 4 panel discussions, a workshop and a pitch competition were on the agenda. In the expo area of the conference, development studios and service providers presented themselves and their products to the professional audience.  In the business area, conference guests arranged a total of more than 300 meetings via the matchmaking platform MeetToMatch and the get-together on the evening of the first conference day was used extensively for networking with the German and international games industry.

The focus topic of this year’s Hamburg Games Conference was “Invest in Games” – major M&A trends in the industry, portfolio strategies, practical insights from the sale of one’s own games company: the main track was all about the potentials of the international games markets, but also about the challenges studios face in winning investors and publishers for their own projects. In the second conference track, speakers additionally shared practical insights and knowledge from the areas of game development, start-up founding and financing.

Successful return as on-site event and international networking platform

“We are delighted about a successful conference with numerous international B2B guests here on site in Hamburg. The Hamburg Games Conference has not only established itself as the one of the first major B2B event in the games industry’s annual calendar, but also as the ideal exchange platform for making international contacts and initiating deals,” comments Dr. Ralph Oliver Graef, Managing Partner of the law firm GRAEF Rechtsanwälte who co-organize the event.

“Our conference program on ‘Invest in Games’ and selected hands-on topics received very positive feedback. In addition to the many practical insights, we were also able to spark discussions, for example about salary transparency or games marketing post-corona,” adds Dennis Schoubye, Head of the location initiative Gamecity Hamburg, co-organizer of the Hamburg Games Conference.

Numerous well-known games companies among attendees, contributors and sponsors

Hamburg-based games companies InnoGames, Bigpoint, Exit Games/ Photon Engine, Behaviour Interactive and The Sandbox supported the conference with sponsorships, as did software service provider Endava and Wemade, provider of the blockchain platform WEMIX, and the Polaris Convention, also based in Hamburg.

Canada’s Quebec was on board as a partner region, which allowed for talks by Stephanie Marchand (VP Production at Behaviour Interactive) and Christopher Chancey (CEO ManaVoid Entertainment & Co-Founder Indie Asylum), among others.

Companies present with speakers or among the conference guests included Humble Games, Assemble Entertainment, 1Up Management, Gameforge, gamigo, Team17, Fishlabs, Jung von Matt Nerd, MTG, Exmox, DDM, DigiTales, Boombit, Tivola, Sviper, DZ Bank, Rockfish Games, BLN Capital, Daedalic Entertainment, FDG Entertainment, DER SPIELGEL, fritz-kola, Agaté, Crunchyroll, com2us, Swiss Games, Hamburg Messe + Congress, Agnitio Capital, Articity, Aream & Co and game – The German Games Industry Associaton.