Madrid goes up a level eyeing to open Europe’s largest video game cluster

Brushing off the stigma and concentrating on the potential of this modern industry

On 7 June, Begoña Villacís, the deputy mayor of Madrid, went to Casa de Campo district to present the pavilions that will host what is planned to become Europe’s largest Video Game Campus. Meant to become fully operational in 2022, this business cluster will bet on the profitability, innovation and attractiveness of the high-tech entertainment sector with the goal of turning the Spanish capital into a leading centre on the continent.

The City Council sees that industry as one of the vehicles for post-pandemic economic recovery

The City Council, through the Department of ​​Economy, Innovation and Employment, is promoting this new economic and labour project with a vision to encourage the creation of new companies and jobs aimed at promoting the sector locally. The platform to support this industry will be the cluster that was presented, and which will be formed, initially, by 42 large companies, developers and teams from the gaming sector.

The vice mayor has assured that the City Council will contribute "to creating a strong video game industry" and recalled that Madrid concentrates 33% of the turnover of this sector in Spain while explaining that when it comes to video games they are often “trivialized and even stigmatized” since only the consumption part of certain games is considered. However, she reiterated that this sector also fosters great values ​​such as “creativity, education, generosity, communication and globalization”.

For his part, the city delegate for Economy, Innovation and Employment, Miguel Ángel Redondo, explained the importance of this sector in figures, citing the employment data and the impact of the sector on the economy: “In Spain, the video game sector generates more than 9,000 direct jobs and more than 23,000 indirect jobs. The direct impact on the economy is 3.57 billion euros”.