D2.1 - Report on the current state of knowledge on Video game industry as Cultural and Creative Industry

The GAME-ER project aims to understand the spatial organisation and clustering dynamics of the video game industry in Europe, focusing on local and regional clusters outside major cities. This report responds to the objectives of the GAME-ER project by addressing the following research questions:

• What is the state of knowledge on the video game industry in Europe, its classification in comparison to other sectors, and the challenges in mapping the industry on a regional level?
• What are the main interpretative building blocks for analysing the determinants of cluster formation and evolution in innovative and creative sectors?
• To what extent the academic literature on the video game industry has addressed the analysis of clusters and the territorial dimension?

Guided by these questions, the report is divided into three parts. The first part situates the European video game industry within the creative economy debate, highlighting the existing issues with industry classification and quantitative spatial mapping, and noting the promise of new data-driven approaches for spatial mapping. The second part illustrates key analytical dimensions relevant to interpret cluster formation, their structure and characteristics. The third part reviews academic literature to assess the focus on video game clusters and gather insights on studied clusters.

This deliverable sets the foundation for the GAME-ER project’s conceptual and empirical assessments, providing a basis for future quantitative and qualitative research on video game clusters at the European regional level.