eGames Lab

Summary

Electronic Games (eGames) exhibit the potential to transform our world by channelling our imagination and our understanding of reality. In a global economy torn by the pandemic and threatened by new belligerence, eGames has kept us continually connected, sharing experiences, enabling positive behaviour change, and teaching us more about history, climate change, humanities, and arts. This vision of transformational games as our millennium’s new default entertainment medium has driven this Consortium to establish a new national cluster for developing a much-longed eGames industry in Portugal.

From an economic perspective, the eGames industry is booming. In recent years, it has experienced outstanding growth. More than 2.5 billion people worldwide play games regularly. Sony Interactive Entertainment’s estimated value is $13.4 billion. Annual global gaming revenue exceeded $200 billion in 2023, which is more than worldwide film box office earnings, music streaming, album sales, and the top five wealthiest sports leagues combined.

However, in Portugal, this sector has been known for its fragmentation and difficulty in leveraging despite the great potential and highly skilled human resources. Therefore, the eGames Lab aims to address technological-specific and operational challenges identified in Portugal, leveraging the members’ competitiveness and positioning them worldwide.

Covering the country from Évora to Lisbon, Madeira, and the Azores, the project will diversify the Portuguese economic fabric heavily dependent on a single industry (tourism), thereby increasing its competitiveness in IT and Web 3.0 industries. The eGames Lab will build capacity for retaining in the country a young, well-trained generation of different backgrounds: design, storytelling, engineering, marketing, and fine arts. It will also attract key stakeholders to Portugal and create a long-lasting sustainable ecosystem for game design and development, playtesting, and successfully bringing the results from creative research and development efforts in interactive entertainment to market.

The Agenda focuses on the following core areas:
● Blockchain-based framework for games;
● Advanced in-game Virtual and Augmented Reality;
● Transformational Games for Health and a Green Agenda;
● Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Storytelling;
● Development of Pre-Market Ecosystems.

and brings together:
● 14 private companies ranging from software development, blockchain, cybersecurity, and creative industries with strong R&D experience;
● 6 R&D Entities (IST.ID, CMF/ITI-LARSyS, PACT, APCA, AFTM, ACIF) and entities recognized for their highly-developed R&D skills in the identified core areas;
● two non-corporate entities with significant know-how in acceleration, marketing, promotion, innovation, and internationalization;
● five worldwide high-visibility brands from the business sector as supporting partners (PlayStation, Amazon, Dell, and EnjinStarter);
● 3 International Universities and Labs as supporting (Carnegie-Mellon; IT Copenhagen and New Zealand’s HitLab).

This mobilizing project was structured for 36 months, allocating 222 highly skilled Human Resources (23 with a PhD level) and a total investment of 30.6M€.

The Consortium encompasses a set of scientific and technological skills. It guarantees the participation of co-promoters from several backgrounds and regions that will ensure the necessary mechanisms and procedures to effectively transfer and exploit the project’s outcomes. The eGames Lab is a game-changer agenda.

Agenda | Agenda eGAMES Lab

Líder do Consórcio: WOWSYSTEMS – Informática Lda.

Descrição da Agenda: Criação, desenvolvimento e internacionalização cluster de indústrias criativas e videojogos.

Data de início: 01-01-2022

Data de conclusão: 31-12-2025

Investimento: 29.991.847,46€

Principais Objetivos Estratégicos:

• Facilitar o lançamento no mercado e criar sustentabilidade financeira;
• Criar centros de inovação para testagem, aceleramento dos programas e criar espaços físicos para testagem de equipamento;
• Criar postos de trabalho altamente qualificados e reter talento no nosso país;
• Facilitar a abertura a novos projetos financiados pela união europeia.

Entidade Beneficiária: IST-ID Associação do Instituto Superior Técnico para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento

Investimento do beneficiário: 2.033.143,39€