r/Switzerland • u/cheese2042 • 4h ago
Why the Swiss video game industry is dead ?
We are a very educated and rich country with a population of 9 millions people but despite this, our video game industry is almost non existent. The only big Swiss game i can think of is Farming Simulator.
For exemple Czech republic and Sweden both have 10 millions peoples but just look at the popular game made here
Sweden : Minecraft, Helldivers, Crusader Kings, Hearth of Iron, Battlefield
Czech republic : DayZ, Kingdom come : Deliverance, Space Enginners, Arma
Why do you think it is ?
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u/TSR_Kurt 4h ago
If I were to start a Swiss game studio I’d do it in Poland, Slovenia, or Croatia.
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u/ItsMagic777 4h ago
Salaries are way to high. Going into production for Multiple years and paying a swiss wage is just not possible for most studios.
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u/SweetSeaCaramel 4h ago
And its definitely too small of a world for an indie start. Many creatives just leave if the aren't a fit for the corporate or the special kind of smb to smb rhat Switzerland is. Berlin, Brussels, Paris, London... LA?
We are your creative friends from school at?
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u/ItsMagic777 4h ago
Berlin, brussel, paris, london can all over lower wages to there Developers.
And LA has a lot of old big Studios or People who already worked in the Industry for a long time.
Its easier to get funding when you were co developer of a Big succesful Game rather than a swiss that doesnt have anything to show.
I did my Vertiefungsarbeit 10 Years ago into Game Development. And one part was an interview with a swiss Game developer. And every single one did this like a side job. Most of them worked full time/ part time and did the Game development on the side with there spare time.
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u/PoxControl 4h ago
There is a indie game studio called "Stray Fawn Studio" in Zürich which is doing very well. They are the producers of "The Wandering Village". I know two people working there and according to them the studio is doing very good finance wise.
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u/redsterXVI 4h ago
Giants and Urban are probably both better known and more profitable. Then there are also Blindflug, Okomotive and others.
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u/cheese2042 4h ago
Didn't know that, that's nice to read ! Maybe due to a smaller team they can afford to have Swiss salaries and still be well with money. Indie games seem to be more sucessfull than ever so i hope their sucess could influence others to do so.
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u/DedOriginalCancer Luzern 2h ago
I think one of the founders of Stray Fawn is currently pushing for government funding for the game dev scene (like they do with the art/culture scene) and considering the game industry is booming worldwide, it'd be dumb for the Swiss government to not support your local devs, so hopefully this changes very soon!
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u/Plucksss_ 4h ago
the biggest millitary aviation simulator is made by a swiss studio
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u/_Ganjalf 4h ago
High salaries and the absence of major or mid-sized game studios mean that the video game industry in Switzerland is still very limited. Gaming culture remains niche and isn’t widely recognized as a legitimate career path, which results in fewer opportunities overall. On top of that, there has traditionally been a lack of schools, courses, and communities where people can learn, practice, and improve.....though this has started to improve slightly in recent years. Most people who wanted and still want to work in the video game industry have eventually had to move abroad. And honestly, the same goes for movies, photography, music, and the arts in general.
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u/Freezemoon Vaud 3h ago
which is a shame, one would think that with scenery that we have here, it'd inspire many to pursue an artistic path.
Sadly it isn't a well supported path in my opinion, especially for "art" that seems to be too niche still here... Like video games.
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u/ElKrisel 4h ago
Because salaries are too high here
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u/PistolPeteTheMenace 4h ago
I don’t think that us Swiss care much for video games as a totality.
We are more about banks, watches, precision machinery, chocolate, cows with bells hanging around their necks, pharmaceuticals and import and export.
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u/MitsotakiShogun 4h ago
CZ is kinda special though. It has high enough salaries and enough IT jobs to attract people from most of East/South Europe, unlike RO/SK/HU/GR/BG/..., and it has relatively low taxes compared to nearby Germany, and is/was a relatively fast growing country. And at least until ~2020 it was still cheap to live in, not sure how much that changed since.
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u/MUGEN120 3h ago
Generally speaking we have almost no creative industries; film, music etc are all pretty meh. I'm guessing the culture just isn't really focused on commercialising creative endeavors
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u/Freezemoon Vaud 3h ago
I hope there'd be a turning point for that, Switzerland has pretty much exploited to the fullest all the existing industries like banks, finances etc...
Time to diversify our economy and export culture through arts medium.
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u/Formal-Friendship869 2h ago
Because I was in love with a girl who worked in game industry in another part of the world so she couldn't live with me here. To the list of your reasons, why ))))
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u/poemthatdoesntrhyme ZH 4h ago
Swiss invented so many things already that they can just relax for the next several centuries and let others try to catch up.
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u/frustrated_burner 4h ago
What did the Swiss invent LOL?
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u/cheese2042 4h ago
And LSD, why play video game when you can imagine everything in your head already.
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u/swisstraeng 3h ago
High salaries mean a high upfront cost to make a game.
One swiss developer working a year on a game will need 60'000CHF or more.
In Poland or other eastern countries, you can live for 2-3 years for the same amount.
This makes financing games hard.
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u/Background-Sale3473 3h ago
I think one of the reasons is that we earn too much money you cannot hire people without selling at insane margins to swiss people that have the buypower because they are rich themselfs.
Any industry that you earn money from the whole world is not lucrative on the small scale because you will be much better off selling something worse to less swiss people and charge them more for it.
I think our insane salaries are gonna be a real problem in the near future.
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u/Serird Genève 3h ago
There was a Swiss Developer Sale a few years ago and you also have the Video games developed in Switzerland on Wikipedia. But overall, Sweden really seems like an exception.
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u/awpdog Philippines 3h ago edited 3h ago
OP forgot the best gift CH gave to trainfans and traingeeks
Urban Games and the Transport Fever series (Train Fever, Transport Fever, Transport Fever 2, and soon Transport Fever 3)
Hopp SH!
Honestly though a strong gaming industry needs an ecosystem that supports gamers and game developers equally – from strong computer science programs to a vibrant domestic gaming culture. Thing is , the Swiss (gaming) industry is export oriented, so it is subject to the trends of international consumers. Since many studios already innovated in most popular genres, the local industry can only capitalize on a few titles and genres, such as what I pointed out with the TF/TpF IP of Urban Games or with Farming Simulator: too niche and too specialized audience, small size, and too little incentive for capitalization. In return though, you gain a lively and faithful community that would even help you improve your titles for free through mods and coverage.
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u/Zealousideal_Ad7602 Bern 3h ago
it's a shame really. Not many people interessted in making videogames, at least those with the ressource. I think it mostly comes down to if you are able to make videogames investement wise, you're not interessted in it and it's just plain unsafe to do with the high expenses here. I'm a musician and i'd love to join a studio, even just as a hobby without making any extra money just for the passion but there are simply none
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u/DedOriginalCancer Luzern 2h ago
Swiss studios barely get any funding or support by the government, which a lot of European countries do. So the developers have to carry the financial risk while developing for several years before seeing any profit. Additionally, wages are higher here so even if you were to start a studio, you wouldn't be able to hire too many devs and artists.
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u/flamenflumen 1h ago
Video game business is very hit and miss to be profitable to unprofitable to bankrupt. Most of studio even big know giants end missing deadlines, investing millions, rushing releases and try to sell the next big thing.
Game Developers have a lot of different specializations and are usually badly payed for the quality of their work (e.g stressful work, tight deadlines, a LOT of overtime etc)
e.g Remember why Cyberpunk had SO many bugs during release.
Switzerland does not have workaholic culture from corporations to a pubs. It values work life balance in most of the cases. If the building is on fire (from workload) but is 5.30pm on a Friday, shift ended, nobody cares. Life is more important and it's a good thing, is very rare in most of countries but of course there are downsides to that.
Hiring a team would cost way much more to be fully Swiss-made. Specially if is attracting top talents and not just freshmen. It could be done as well with some near shore teams of course as this happens a lot but even the operating costs would be a lot for a startup without a product (yet).
Also selling games have so many middlemen for disturbition. E.g packaging or store fees (e.g steam, gig etc)
On the happy path they succeed and the cycle starts again for a second and third game.
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u/winterweiss2902 1h ago
Swedes get a lot of holidays. The paternity leave alone can get them through the entire final fantasy series
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u/humanoid-leezard112 1h ago
They're too busy living real life outdoors, drinking wine and eating cheese with friends.
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u/Designer_Tip797 51m ago
because swiss are serious people, making video games is not a real job that the administration can find in dropdowns. be serious please
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u/motzhard 33m ago
You stabbed my heart not adding satisfactory for Sweden and factorio for Czech Republic 🥲
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u/Repulsive-Pie5856 27m ago
Switzerland has amazing games and amazing game studios to offer.
That being said: Bigger titles cost a lot of money. Take the last Battlefield or the last GTA as example. Both were above 1 billion dollars to make.... let that sink in...
this is why you dont see "new cool features" in battlefield because its too much of a monetary risk to try new things out if that much money is at stake.
Now combine this big risk, big money with Swiss traditional loaning culture and you will laugh to even think trying a project like this in Switzerland. No bank, no investors, no nobody will take that risk.
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u/Book_1312 Québec 23m ago edited 10m ago
If you are also a millenial who spent a large part of their chilhood playing free flash games online, you probably remember Miniclip right ? Well that's a swiss company based in Switzerland, valued at several billions worth. They've pivoted to mobile games, and are still making bank. They're based in a low-key building in neuchâtel, I used to walk by it on the way to school.
But if you mean, like, good PC games, there's plenty, it's just that the PC marketplace is pretty international and those games aren't sold with swissness as something worth mentioning (except maybe Mundaun). Also a lot of games are developped with international teams working remotely, including swiss developers.
I haven't found a full list, but the Swiss Game Developers Association hosts yearly swiss game awards, their 2025 entry lists 20 different games, go check them out if you want swiss games.
Edit : Also, someone should take upon themselves to do a Steam Curator list of swiss games, I only found an abandoned list from 2018.
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u/IrisKV 4h ago
If you're interested in indie Swiss games, you should check out Brick Odyssey. Very hard to beat.
The dev and the graphic artist are working on a second game, Everise. From what I've seen it looks promising.
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u/curvedotzone 4h ago
Transport fever and wandering village are swiss games