Video games in the Czech Republic

The video game industry in the Czech Republic has produced numerous globally successful video games such as Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis and the subsequent ArmA series, the Mafia series, Truck Simulator series, the Kingdom Come: Deliverance series, the Samorost series and others. There were 300–400 video game developers and around 30 video game companies focusing on video game development in 2014. In 2017, the country had 1,100 developers and 47 companies.[1] Video games are also considered by some experts to be the country's biggest cultural export.[2] The video game industry did not enjoy a good reputation and was unsupported by the state until 2013, when the Ministry of Industry and Trade started to seek ways to kickstart the economy. By 2014, programs were planned to support the video game industry. Another problem is a lack of video game development specialization at any university.[3][4][5][6][7]

In 2014, Czech video game site Bonusweb made a survey for the best video game developed in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The victor of the survey is Mafia: City of Lost Heaven that received 3866 votes out of 13,143. Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis was second and Vietcong third.[8] In 2019, Games.cz made a list of the 15 best video games developed in the Czech Republic. It was also topped by Mafia: City of Lost Heaven.[9]

  1. ^ "Česká hra roku 2016: zlaté ručičky tuzemských herních vývojářů oceňují i v zahraničí | Kultura". Lidovky.cz. 28 January 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  2. ^ Doskocil, Jan (4 March 2014). "Podle výzkumníka Univerzity Karlovy jsou hry naším největším kulturním exportem". Eurogamer.cz. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  3. ^ "České hry na počítač (PC)". Mujsoubor.cz. 30 January 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  4. ^ "České hry na mobil a tablety". Mujsoubor.cz. 3 February 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  5. ^ "Kreativní Česko – Další článek od Michaely Svobodové z MF... | Facebook". Cs-cz.facebook.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  6. ^ "Herni prumysl" (PDF). Mediadeskcz.eu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 November 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  7. ^ "Podpoří stát herní průmysl?". 24 April 2013.
  8. ^ "Nejlepší česko-slovenská hra? Že neuhádnete, kdo na plné čáře vyhrál". Bonusweb. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  9. ^ "Redakční anketa: 15 nejlepších českých her". Games.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 18 September 2019.