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Eugenio Cabezas
Nerja
Wednesday, 16 October 2024, 13:16
Although there are no definitive official figures, it is estimated that the gaming industry directly alone is worth some 200 billion dollars a year worldwide. Europe wants to gain a foothold in an industry dominated by the US and China and to this end the Spanish firm Gamelab, created by the Asturian computer engineer Iván Fernández two decades ago, is trying to unite and energise the digital sector on the continent.
Although based in Madrid and with projects in Barcelona, Fernández, 49, has a strong link with Malaga province, as he has spent his holidays in Nerja since his childhood. For this reason the engineer has decided to hold the Games Executive Summit Europe 2024 in the town, a forum that will take place from today (Wednesday 16) until Saturday 19 October at the Parador de Turismo, which will bring together 70 video game content creators and theorists in the field. “It is a kind of European ‘Davos’ of video games, it is a meeting that is not open to the general public, but the conclusions will be made public,” Fernández told SUR on Tuesday.
A few hours before the participants begin to arrive, Gamelab held on Monday and Tuesday, a meeting for video game startups at the Digital Content Hub in Malaga city. “Malaga is very well positioned and has made a very important commitment to digital companies,” said Fernández, who added that the meeting in Nerja “is established as the most influential forum for the video game industry in Europe.”
He said that his reason for choosing Nerja, other than it being a place close to his own heart, is that “it has a lot of symbolism related to the meeting, the Balcón de Europa and the commitment that the Nerja Cave has made to technology with the three-dimensional room”.
The meeting will bring together more than 70 leaders in digital entertainment, including Sir Ian Livingstone, co-creator of the successful Tomb Raider franchise, founder of the Games Workshop chain, and writer of the iconic Fighting Fantasy book series, which combines interactive adventures with decision-making, laying the foundations for the development of modern role-playing games, or Richard Bartle, considered the father of the metaverse and online multiplayer games, architect of virtual worlds.
According to Fernández, the Games Executive Summit Europe has the support of the Spanish Ministry of Culture and funding from the European Union's Resilience and Recovery Mechanism, as well as Acción Cultural Española, Nerja town hall, DDM and Madrid InGame.
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