Gaming Industry - the Development Force of Serbia

The video game industry is a huge force in the development of Serbia, where 3,000 people work in 130 gaming companies whose total revenues last year alone amounted to around 125 million euros, it was said at the regional meeting "Level Up your IP: 101 Strategies for Videogame Developers" in Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia.

Due to the rapid growth of the gaming industry and its global importance, the protection of intellectual property rights plays a key role in the further development of this type of business in Serbia, said Mihailo Vesović, Director of the Sector for Strategic Analysis, Services, and Internationalization at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia.

"With more than 200 billion dollars a year, the video game industry in the world and in our country is starting to be a huge force of development. "More than 130 companies in Serbia employ about 3,000 people in this industry," said Vesović.

This fast-growing industry is predicted to be worth around $330 billion in 2026, and the number of gamers in the world will soon reach three billion.

Vladimir Marić, Director of the Institute for Intellectual Property, pointed to the fact that in the 70s of the last century, the share of so-called intangible assets, patents, trademarks, and industrial design in the company's assets, amounted to 17 percent, and today that percentage is 85 percent. He added that five percent of the GDP in Serbia is created by creative industries, and half of that amount comes from the ICT sector.

"Entire economic branches and industries have grounds on intellectual property." Therefore, every modern society must take care of the protection of intellectual property, among other things, by working on education in this area, first of all its businessmen and academic citizens, but also all others who participate in the cultural and economic life of our country “, Maric said.

The ICT sector in Serbia has achieved great growth in recent years, and gaming, along with blockchain, is seen as one of the most promising sectors. The three biggest acquisitions in Serbia that happened in the ICT sector came from the gaming sector, recalled Relja Bobić, Program Director of the Association of Video Games Industry of Serbia.

Virag Halgand, Head of the Department for Central Europe and Baltic and Mediterranean countries at the World Intellectual Property Organization emphasized that with 300 billion dollars of global results in two years, the video game industry has shown resilience and that the demand is growing and not decreasing.