Why Spain is a key engine powering Monopoly Go developer Scopely

• Scopely employs over 1,100 staff in Spain.
• The company has a growing hub in Seville where it has almost 150 staff.
• The Barcelona studio is Scopely's "primary international engine" in the country.

This article is from our Iberia region report, to be published in association with Xsolla, coming soon. Representatives from Scopely will be at Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona on June 15th and 16th to discuss Monopoly Go and more. Get your tickets here.

Though Scopely, now most famous for multi-billion dollar mobile blockbuster Monopoly, is a US-headquartered company, it has studios across the globe. Key to its operations though, is Spain.

The company first opened its Barcelona office in 2017 with just five people after Scopely co-CEO Javier Ferrera, a native Spaniard who started his career in Spain, saw potential in the location. 

Since then, Spain has become one of the publisher’s most strategic global markets. Today, it has more than 1,100 ‘Scopeleans’ - how it refers to employees - across the country. Alongside a massive presence in Barcelona, it also has a significant and growing hub in Seville, where it has almost 150 staff.

Scopely has acquired Spanish companies like casual mobile studio Genjoy in 2020, which was based in Seville, and Barcelona-based Omnidrone in 2022. Meanwhile, its Spain teams work on the company’s in-house technology platform Playgami, which supports a wide variety of games, and in-house creative agency Flamed was built from the ground up in Barcelona - with other  remote staff around the world.

Talent hub

Spain, and particularly Barcelona, is a key engine that drives the publisher’s business and helped it secure the number one spot on PocketGamer.biz’s Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2024 list.

“What makes Barcelona so compelling is its unique blend of world-class talent, international appeal,” Scopely director of operations Néstor Pequeño tells PocketGamer.biz.

“It’s an ecosystem where creativity and technical expertise come together. That said, Spain’s strength is increasing nationwide: Madrid continues to scale, accounting for a vital share of the developer workforce, while cities like Seville, Valencia, Malaga and the Canary Islands are emerging as vibrant tech rising stars.

“It is also particularly interesting to watch the case of the Canary Islands, where the local government is actively incentivising the industry through powerful and unique tax benefits to video games studios.

“While this regional push is still more of a promising horizon than a consolidated reality, it signals the ambition to transform the archipelago into a strategic hub for the Spanish games scene. It will be interesting to see how it develops and if these fiscal incentives are enough to attract the talent required to build a sustainable long-term hub in the region.”

Elaborating on the wider opportunities of Spain, Pequeño says that Madrid continues to scale as a “massive talent pool”, while the emergence of hubs like Seville, Valencia and Malaga allows companies to tap into diverse creative cultures.

He says that Spain has a competitive advantage through the polarisation of its talent.

“While Barcelona has long been a global powerhouse for mobile and live ops, other hubs like Madrid have traditionally leaned into PC and console development,” explains Pequeño.

“This dual heritage creates a significant opportunity for convergence; with specialised talent from both sectors coexisting in the same ecosystem, Spain is well-positioned to further develop cross-platform experiences that bridge these two development cultures.

“At Scopely, we’ve seen this potential firsthand with Stumble Guys, which began as a mobile-first sensation and evolved into a cross-platform hit on PC and consoles. It is a demonstration of how the talent in the region can build games that offer a seamless experience regardless of the device.”

Challenges and opportunities

For Pequeño, one of the biggest challenges Spain’s games industry faces is scale. Spain’s ecosystem is incredibly creative, he says, but it’s also very fragmented.

With roughly 500 registered companies plus another 300 teams operating just as projects, “you can really see the gap between having a great idea and actually being a viable business”.

“It’s not that we lack creativity; it’s just that making the leap to a sustainable company is tough,” says Pequeño of Spain’s games industry. “Many of these teams struggle to access the capital and long-term support they need to turn a small project into something that can compete on a global scale.”

He adds: “At the end of the day, Spain reflects the reality of the games business: it's never been easier to get a project off the ground, but it’s also never been harder to succeed. The country certainly has the creativity, but in such a crowded global market, a good idea is just the starting line. The real challenge now is helping the smaller studios turn that initial momentum into lasting success that keeps them on the map.”

Pequeño is optimistic for the future of Spain’s games sector, believing it already has the foundational ingredients to become a major games hub: talent, international reach, technical depth and a growing network of specialised hubs.

But he hopes for two things for Spain to be recognised not just as a place to hire talent, but to be a global leader in the business of games: a mature multi-hub ecosystem and developing more cross-platform experiences.

“While I expect Barcelona to remain our primary international engine and Madrid a massive talent powerhouse, I hope to see cities like Seville, Valencia and Malaga continuing to mature into well-established hubs, each carving out its own distinct identity and adding more depth to the country's overall capacity.”

In an effort to support Spain’s future industry growth, Scopely is taking an active role in talent development by launching collaborations with several universities across the country.

“Our goal is to help each other: we share our real-world experience and technical insights to help shape curricula, ensuring that the next generation of professionals is ‘studio-ready’. The more we can bridge the gap between the classroom and the development floor, the more resilient and successful the entire Spanish ecosystem will be.”

He adds: “Spain has a very strong and diverse ecosystem, and that is one of its greatest strengths. From Scopely’s side, we are proud to be one of the leading companies in the city and in the country, but the ecosystem is much broader than any one company.

"To me, the key players are not only the large companies. They also include the universities, training centres, industry associations and smaller studios that help build the pipeline of talent and ideas. That broader ecosystem is what will make Spain a truly sustainable hub for the long-term.”

Additional reporting by Alex Calvin.