French foresight: Only 3% of France’s games were hypercasual last year | Pocket Gamer.biz

The SNJV has released its yearly report on the state of the French games industry, following surveys of 577 developers between February and June 2023.

It reveals insight into the state of French games companies throughout 2022, the year when mobile revenue decreased for the first time. Among the SNJV’s findings are that 1257 video games were under development in France, 76% of roles were with permanent contracts, and 27% of studios generated over €1 million.

Vive la difference

From the 1257 games in development in 2022, 854 were new IPs and 776 released within the year. Mirroring one another, 1257 games total represented a 7% decline from 2020, as did the 776 released. On the rise, meanwhile, were blockchain games – with 42 in development last year, up 3% from 2020.

As for the devices most developed for, PC games were the focus for 33.5% of devs, followed by home consoles at 22.8%. Mobile ranked third with only 16.1%, and the number of hypercasual games made was even shockingly lower – considering their popularity worldwide last year.

In Franch though, only 3% of games in development were hypercasual, while hybrid already represented 5.9%. Indie games were the most prevalent overall, with 39% of French devs having worked on one in 2022.

Working in France

Of all French regions, it was Île-de-France that housed the most development studios last year, with 44.6% of the 577 total. This is unsurprising given the region surrounds French capital Paris, but perhaps more surprising is the dramatic fall in studios based in even the second most popular area: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in southeast-central France contained only 13.1% of the 577 devs last year.

On the employment side, tech-based jobs were most prevalent last year at 31.2% of the workforce, followed by design (23.5%) and visuals (22.6%). There was also a “significant increase in apprenticeships”.

The number of devs to have made over €10 million more than doubled between 2020 and 2022, from 6.4% to 14.4%, meanwhile 27% made over €1 million. However, for the majority of devs in France (55%), revenues below €300,000 were seen.

With a mention of publishers around the developer focus, the SNJV added: “Publishers have been gaining more influence year after year: while in 2019, 39% of studios worked with a publisher, the number increased to 53% in 2021, and reached 62% in 2022.”

The full SNJV report also looks at international performances and game budgets. A new Ipsos report, meanwhile, has found that 76% of French children have an explicit agreement with their parents about how much they can spend in games.