First Playable, great success for the business event dedicated to Italian gaming

The First Playable 2022 was a success and it was not taken for granted, especially after two difficult years in which it took place remotely. It was not obvious because it is a young event, this year was, in fact, the fourth edition, and between the return of Covid infections and the so uncertain international situation it was not so automatic that many professionals in the sector wanted to travel, meet and meet new promises looking for work. But so it was and in three days, at the Arsenali Repubblicani in Pisa, they alternated over 50 international guests and 90 Italian development studios.

The First Playable is the first international business event held in Italy dedicated to gaming. This year’s edition, the fourth, was held from 5 to 8 July at the Republican Arsenals in Pisa. In this magnificent setting, more than 30 publishers and 25 speakers, from 7 countries (in this case, United Kingdom, France, Holland, Spain, Sweden, Denmark and Poland), took part in the event to get to know and meet 90 studios of Italian development, represented by about 170 developers, during the more than 630 business events, of which about 500 on site and 130 online.

To these numbers are added 10 hours with Italian and international speakers and the award ceremony of the Italian Video Game Awards – both broadcast live on the Twitch channel of First Playable and Multiplayer.it, media partner of the event – which recorded more than 92,000 live views.

Numerous publishers and investors who attended the online and onsite pitching and coaching meetings to view the projects of large and small developers from all over Italy: 11 bit studios, 34BigThings, 505 Games, Acer, All in! Games, Amplifier Game Invest, Armor Games Studios, Blitworks Games, Curve Games, Epic Games, Focus Entertainment, Forever Seed Fund, Frontier Development, Handy Games, IO Interactive, Kepler Interactive, Kwalee, Koch Media, Marvelous, myAppFree, Merge Games, Nintendo of Europe, Red Bull Indie Forge, Renaissance PR, Slitherine, Snail Games, Square Enix Collective, Team 17, Thunderful Group, Xsolla, Wired Productions and Zordix.

During the event, a panel dedicated to tax credit video games with the participation of the Ministry of Culture (MIC), the Cinema and Audiovisual Directorate of the MIC, IIDEA and one of the companies benefiting from the measure with the moderation of Multiplayer.it. The appointment made it possible to take stock of the first session of the video game tax credit which assigned 5 million euros in tax credits to Italian video game production companies. On the occasion, the future of the measure was also discussed, which for 2022 saw an increase in the allocation to 11 million euros. IIDEA has to raise the limit per company to at least 2 million per year compared to the current 1 million.

Finally, during the days of the event there was no lack of moments of networking: on the evening of July 6, the Italian Aperitif organized by IIDEA, Toscana Film Commission and Agenzia ICE took place in the enchanting Corte Byron dei Bagni di Pisa. On 7 July, however, the First Playable Party offered by Unreal Engine, Platinum Sponsor of First Playable, was staged inside the Domus Comeliana, a historic location in the center of Pisa at the foot of the characteristic tower.

The First Playable will return in 2023 with a new edition.