Nordic Game 2017 breaks all records

The fourteenth edition of the Nordic Game conference took place in Malmö, Sweden on 17-19 May, with colleagues from the region and around the world celebrating the Nordic games industry and a passion for games. This year’s event also broke all previous records: over three days, more than 2000 NG17 attendees met with their peers, participated in talks by over 150 speakers and shared their knowledge, projects and passion.

The 2017 program included many highlights, like the philosophical “fireside chat” featuring Fumito Ueda and David Polfeldt, intense tech sessions by “INSIDE” creators from Danish Playdead and in-depth talks from Anita Sarkeesian, Brie Code, Ralph Fulton, Ste Curran and many, many others.

MeetToMatch business matchmaking was another tremendous success story at NG17. A whopping 2079 meetings were held, cementing Nordic Game’s reputation as one of the world’s absolute hotspots for games business. This year’s Investing in Games Summit once again connected a range of selected game companies with leading global investors, and the second annual Publisher Market helped many exciting new game projects find potential partners.

From a Nordic developer’s perspective, NG17 confirmed yet again that the region’s industry continues to expand in “high gear”. The sold-out Expo floor was filled with new and upcoming Nordic games, among these eight titles nominated for the annual Sensation Award. NG17 attendees were able to play all of the nominated games and vote for their favourites, with “Morkredd” from Norwegian Hyper Games declared this year’s winner.

Thursday evening, right before the annual gala dinner (served to over 900 sitting guests), featured the 2017 Nordic Game Awards. “INSIDE” from Danish Playdead dominated this year’s ceremony in the Unreal Theatre, winning in four categories including “Nordic Game of the Year”. Denmark’s “Hitman“, “GoNNER” and “Clapper” from Sweden and Norwegian “Owlboy” were also among 2017’s prize-winning games. Celebrations continued late into the night, as over 1000 people joined in the renowned music, “marioke” and more of the Nordic Party at Slagthuset.

Friday, 19 May featured the debut of “Discovery Day”, created in cooperation with Copenhagen Game Collective and spotlighting new, talented and innovative game makers from the region and around the globe. Besides memorable talks curated especially for Discovery Day, 40 of the “freshest” games were on display in the “Discovery Showcase”. The absolute highlights of the day-long program were the Sensation Award, won by popular vote by Norwegian “Morkredd”, and the Nordic Game Discovery Contest finals. After a several fierce live-pitch rounds, Finnish “Ocmo” went on to take the prize as this season’s Discovery Contest “Game of the Year”.

The Nordic Game team would like to thank all of the great people who joined us for three unforgettable days last week, all of our exhibitors who brought the NG17 show floor to life, all of our awesome partners who supported us through thick and thin, and importantly, our fabulous sponsors who helped make NG17 not only possible, but our best event ever.

We sincerely hope to see all of you again for NG18, 23-25 May 2018!

Nordic Game 2017 sponsors and partners included:

Nordic Game Institute, Amazon Lumberyard, Amazon Web Services, Annapurna, Appodeal, Autodesk/Future, Awapatent, AzPlay, Bandai Namco Entertainment, BerlinBalticNordic.net, Big Games Machine, BIU, Copenhagen Game Collective, Collide + Disconnect, Creative Media, Cursor, Devcom, DevGamm, DGC Games Dubai, Diversi, DGA, DYTG, Elias Music, Epic Games/Unreal Engine 4, EGCA, EGDF, Esports Conference Poland, Gamvento/Forest Interactive, Game City Malmö, Game Connection, Game Factory, Games from Québec, Gamescom, GG Conference, GamesIndustry.biz, GameSparks, GetIT, GIST Gaming Istanbul, Gothia Science Park, Gumbler, Gumi, Hamar Game Collective, IGDA, IMGA, Kavio Cluster, King, Konsoll, Localize Direct, Malmö Stad, Massive Entertainment, Media Evolution, Media:net Berlin-Brandenburg, MGF, Nevaly, Nintendo, Northern Game Summit, Nordic Game Bits, Nordic Game Jam, Nordic Game Ventures, Nordisk Film Games, Perforce, Play Finland, Playa, PG Connect, Polska, Pro Helvetia, Québec, Quo Vadis, Reboot, Respawn, RGDA, Southern Sweden Creatives, Sweden Game Arena, #SwissGames, Tarsier Studios, Tekwill, TELUS International, Tilting Point, Unity, The Game Assembly, VentureBeat, Vungle, Wacom, White Nights, Yousician, Xtralife and many more.