Games & Leaves' Antti Kananen on why Finland's developers should keep sharing and learn from past mistakes

Pocket Gamer Connects heads to Helsinki next month on October 7th to 8th.

As we lead up to the big show, we've been reached out to speakers and local companies to get their views on the Finnish games industry.

We spoke with Games & Leaves head of games Antti Kananen about state of Finland's games sector. This interview was conducted as part of our region spotlight, which you can view here. The full Finland games industry report is available for download.

PocketGamer.biz: How would you assess the Finnish games scene at the moment?

Antti Kananen: Overall, how I see the situation is that there’s an ongoing back-and-forth cycle.

On the mobile games side, one visible trend is disinvestment by foreign studios, including the closure of a couple of studios this year - clearly on the negative side. On the other hand, companies like Supercell and Metacore have managed to iterate on their live operations, shipping player experiences that have led to recent peaks in some of their games. Still, even these companies have struggled to launch new games at the scale they once did.

On the PC and console side, Remedy reported positive financial results for the first half of the year (recently reported EBIT was €0.8 million compared to €-5.3 million last year), although they didn’t manage to generate significant traction with their latest release, FBC: Firebreak.

Meanwhile, Housemarque - another major PC and console studio - is a bit “quietly” developing their new game Saros, announced earlier this year. Before Saros, they released Returnal, which had a moderately positive run. 

It will be interesting to see whether Remedy can turn the tide, deliver their next titles with strong results, and sustain this recent financial spike - especially as they try to breathe new life into FBC: Firebreak while developing future projects.

At the same time, Housemarque, through long-term investments and their partnership with Sony (who acquired them), seems to have found a formula that could pay off well - provided they ship their next title successfully - which could position them to seriously challenge Remedy (maybe even top them, who knows).

While these developments are unfolding in both markets, there have also been studio shutdowns due to bankruptcies - though some of these teams have gone on to start new projects. Where these ventures will lead remains to be seen, as it has been quite an “eventful year".

What opportunities do you see in Finland's games industry?

Finland has world-class expertise in live operations, demonstrated recently by companies like Supercell and Metacore. Even if large-scale new game launches have slowed, there’s an opportunity to leverage this knowledge through the means the industry has raised its profile in the past: networking.

As long as we keep sharing and caring about things together, we’re hopefully able to learn from each other on how we can do better.

The wave of closures and bankruptcies, while painful, also seeds the ecosystem with experienced talent starting new ventures. This creates a fertile ground for fresh ideas, and experimentation.

Given the energy of this experimentation is used in combination with our creative power, in alignment with the commercial efforts some companies have managed to demonstrate, there is an opportunity to build better companies. This requires, however, really great execution, and looking most probably into spearheading some level of paradigm shifts.

And even if games would be as a market tough, Finland has a strong tech, design, and creative arts base. There’s untapped potential in merging gaming with other sectors - creating exportable products and new revenue streams beyond traditional games. So I’d say opportunities lie in spaces close to games as well.

And what challenges do you see?

We’re experiencing a tension-filled period, with frequent ups and downs playing out in smaller micro-cycles. This means that while some companies occasionally deliver global-level excellence, others are facing increasingly tough times. Of course, Finland is not alone in this.

Beyond the market’s financial performance, there are other challenges - such as people having a difficult time securing jobs due to dynamics unfolding both locally and globally. On that front, the industry has also been hurt by government-level changes that have made relocating to Finland less attractive compared to how things were in the past.

What is your outlook for the sector? If we speak again in five years, where do you hope Finland's games market to be?

If our “giants” can double down on what they already do exceptionally well and start shipping commercially viable games more consistently, we can sustain the current trend of showcasing the global excellence Finland is known for.

Beyond that, I genuinely hope, on PC and console front, Housemarque earns its “proper” triple-A crown by successfully delivering high-quality games one after another, building on the success formula they seem to have found.

While it might be hard to imagine today, I remain optimistic that some of the new companies will be able to build scalable businesses rather than repeating the mistakes others have already made. In my view, this will require certain paradigm-level shifts, which I hope they are actively exploring - shifts that could lead to building something both tangible and successful.

As long as we build with “sisu”, keep learning, iterate on those learnings, and share knowledge with one another, I believe the market could turn a page - especially in light of the broader macro-level changes currently in motion.

What more do you want for the country's games scene? I.e. more support from government, more investment in general?

Government support is something we need to get back on track. This includes rebuilding what we once had - from teaching game development and setting up incubators to investing in innovative companies with both commercial understanding and strong leadership. There are positives and negatives here: while some funding is still available through current programs, certain game education initiatives have been shut down.

Beyond this, as some commercialisation efforts have paid off while others have not, I’d like to see a paradigm-level shift in how we combine creativity with commercial understanding. This would mean focusing on building games around real opportunities - while also ensuring they are designed to be properly scalable and distributable at the level required to compete with other markets that already do this effectively.

What's your assessment of the investment landscape in the Finnish games industry?

It’s correct to say that funding for the Finnish games industry has decreased. However, this is not entirely due to investors; it is also because Finland has not had many fundable companies recently, owing to certain global dynamics that have raised the bar significantly.

Simply put, it’s hard to fund companies that don’t operate with the right balance of creativity and commercial excellence. It will be interesting to see if these new ventures manage to combine these elements at the required level to bring the industry back into a growth loop on the startup front.

Beyond having fundable companies, I’d also like to see investors and VCs turn their attention back to Finland - and for the gatekeeping dynamics in the investment space to end.

In practice, this means seeing some traditional funds return to game investments, as well as existing funds taking the time to more thoroughly analyse the opportunities we have here - or at least helping teams incubate and accelerate healthy businesses that combine genuine creativity with commercial expertise. This would help us reach a position where more fundable companies exist.

Finally, the industry includes several millionaires who made their fortunes in games, and I believe they should begin giving back to the industry rather than remaining as passive as they are now.

How has the changes to Finnish immigration law impacted the country's games industry?

In a nutshell, relocating to Finland can be perceived as being less attractive than it was in the past, which is not ideal for the industry in terms of work-based immigration.

For the games industry, this is especially challenging: a significant portion of the workforce in Finland’s game studios consists of foreign talent.

Several companies, as well as Neogames - the industry’s umbrella organisation - have voiced serious concerns that these restrictions could undermine innovation and competitiveness.

There are, of course, many big companies here, so that helps to some extent still to keep going.

Who do you see as the key players in the Finnish games scene in 2025?

Supercell (Clash teams, Brawl Stars team) and Metacore (Merge Mansion team) are showing growing traction with their current efforts. On top of that, I hope Housemarque will achieve success with their next game, earning their proper triple-A crown.

I also hope that studios like Small Giant Games and EA Helsinki continue pushing their efforts forward, successfully working under larger umbrellas for years and generating strong results, keeping the flag flying for Finland.