Inside Azerbaijan’s push to build a global games development ecosystem

• Emerging ecosystems like Azerbaijan are beginning to influence the global games industry by diversifying talent and new creative perspectives.
• Lower production costs and a technically skilled workforce are enabling studios to experiment in ways larger markets often can’t always justify financially.
• Mentorship and access to international networks are key accelerators, helping studios avoid costly mistakes and connect with publishers and investors.

The global games industry is no longer centred only around the big traditional development hubs. With new emerging markets and remote collaborations becoming more common, this spreads development across borders, which in turn influences how games are made and who is making them. 

One ecosystem that we are seeing gain momentum is Azerbaijan. Its games market is now projected to exceed $200 million, representing a growing opportunity for studios, investors and partners who are looking to expand beyond the established hubs. 

In 2025, global games commerce company Xsolla became a resident of the country’s Technopark under the Innovation and Development Agency. This followed the launch of the Xsolla–IDDA Incubation Program, the country’s first international game incubator.

Xsolla’s SVP global strategic initiatives and government relations, Rytis Joseph Jan, notes that the significance of regions like Azerbaijan lies less in scale and more in perspective. 

“Emerging ecosystems like Azerbaijan are beginning to influence the global games industry by diversifying both talent and creative perspectives."

Lower product costs and a technically skilled workforce are able to allow studios to experiment in ways that larger markets sometimes struggle to justify from a financial standpoint. 

However, building a studio outside of established development areas comes with its own challenges and structural hurdles. 

“There are three persistent challenges that come to mind when building a studio outside of hubs like Los Angeles or Tokyo: access to experienced talent, capital and global networks,” says Jan. “Recruiting senior developers locally is difficult and convincing investors requires extra proof of scalability. Distribution visibility and publisher relationships also lag.”

Those barriers, he argues, are changing alongside the industry itself. 

“Remote work, web shops and middleware tools have reduced dependency on geography,” he says. “Regional governments, including Azerbaijan’s, are beginning to support creative industries with developments like Innovation and Digital Agency, which provides grants, incubation, training programmes and even venture-style financing for startups, including game studios.”

The result is a growing ability for studios to integrate direction into global production networks. With online communities and wider connections, it’s easier for studios to plug into global pipelines, and Jan says it is now more feasible to grow from emerging markets like Azerbaijan. 

Product thinking and industry access

For Shahin Aliyev, the founder of Dynamic Box, participation in the Xsolla Incubation program marked a true turning point. 

“The biggest outcome for us was shifting from a development mindset to a product mindset,” he says. “That meant reworking how we approach positioning, defining a clear target audience and building marketing funnels before development goes too far.”

Beyond individual studios, Aliyev believes incubation accelerates learning across the entire ecosystem. He notes that the value is speed, and that instead of every studio figuring this out over years, programmes such as this compress that learning into months.

“The competitive element within the programme also pushes teams to move faster and aim higher,” he says. 

Access to experienced industry voices remains one of the strongest accelerators for emerging studios in Azerbaijan.

Jan notes that "experienced mentors, often from established ecosystems, help teams avoid costly production, hiring and monetisation mistakes while opening doors to publishers, platforms and investors.” 

This kind of exposure to global partners often coincides with defining moments of growth, with key turning points typically including securing first external funding, launching a polished vertical slice, signing a publishing deal and achieving initial market traction. 

“Each step validates the studio and unlocks the next layer of growth,” Jan states. 

Learning what investors want and competing in new markets

Moving from incubation into accelerator programmes changed how Dynamic Box approached development decisions. 

“Once you move into investment discussions, effort stops being the differentiator. Clarity and traction become the kings,” Shahin says. “Investors don’t fund potential alone, they fund well-articulated directions backed by early signals.”

Shahin explains that they learned to cut unnecessary scope and to focus on what actually moves the needle, such as wishlists, community and presenting the product in a way that is easy for people to understand within seconds. 

As studios begin scaling internally, this triggers a quick shift in priorities and it becomes clear that, firstly, the game has to resonate beyond just your home market because what works locally doesn’t always translate at scale. Preparation for this global competition needs to start early. 

“It’s about getting serious on monetisation, live ops and community building early, not as an afterthought," explains Jan. “Studios also need strong relationships with publishers, platforms and partners who can bring a game into the spotlight.” 

Jan goes on to tell us that the studios that scale well are those that treat production, analytics and player feedback as a single continuous system and remain flexible enough to adapt as they learn from these new markets. 

Why regional developers matter

For Shahin, expanding the geographic diversity of game development is essential for the industry’s future. 

“Regional developers bring different perspectives, constraints and cultural influences and that’s where genuinely new ideas come from,” he says. “If the industry wants to keep innovating, it needs to broaden the sources of those ideas, not just to optimise within visiting hubs.”

Shahin explains how Dynamic Box’s own progress reflects that shift, stating that they fundamentally reworked its project position from a “cool prototype into something with a clear audience and market angle” and that they worked in international conversations, not just local ones, which was a transformation that opened other opportunities. 

“Xsolla’s incubation program directly led to follow-up opportunities, including accelerator participation and investment, because we were able to present ourselves at the level expected by global partners. Without that shift, those doors likely wouldn’t have opened as early as they did.”

The relationship we see between global companies and more emerging ecosystems is continuing to evolve. Jan says that looking ahead, collaboration among global partners and emerging ecosystems such as Azerbaijan will shape how the next wave of studios matures. 

“It’s no longer just outsourcing or support work. It’s co-development, shared IP and early-stage collaboration with local studios plugging directly into global production pipelines,” Jan says. 

“The real shift is knowledge transfer, mentorship, tooling and standards being embedded locally, “ he says. “Over time, this creates self-sustaining ecosystems where studios don’t just participate globally, they compete, innovate and lead.”