This is a list I compiled over the course of several weeks, I tried to include everything from AAA titles to indie ones, from old classics to mobile games for smartphones, in the end my only requirement was to be popular enough. For mobile games in particular I was way more exclusive and generally put them towards the end of the various lists
I also add that I always used the country where the game was developed, but in some cases they were then published by American or Japanese companies. In Ubisoft's case instead I did the opposite and put everything under France, but their titles were often jointly developed with the various subsidiaries from all over Europe and the world
Austria: Ori and the Blind Forest, Bridge Constructor, Anno series (only the first two titles, now under Ubisoft and made in Germany), The Binding of Isaac (made by an Austrian and an American devs), Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom
Belarus/Cyprus: World of Tanks
Belgium: Larian Studio (Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity: Original Sin)
Bulgaria: Surviving Mars, three games of the Tropico series
Croatia: Serious Sam, Scum, Escape Simulator, Doodle Jump
Czech Republic: Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Mafia, Bohemia Interactive (Arma, Operation Flashpoint, Dayz), Truck Simulator series, Factorio, Beat Saber, Space Engineers, Machinarium, Gray Zone Warfare, Top Spin 4
Denmark: IO Interactive (Hitman, 007 First Light, Kane & Lynch), Deep Rock Galactic, Ghostrunner (co-developed with a Polish company), Playdead studio (Limbo, Inside), Subway Surfers
Estonia: Disco Elysium, Buckshot Roulette
Finland: Snake (for Nokia), Remedy Entertainment Studio (Alan Wake, Max Payne, Control, Quantum Break), Cities: Skylines, Ultrakill, Trine, Noita, Wreckfest, My Summer Car, Trials (since 2011 instead it's under Ubisoft), Rovio Entertainment Studio (Angry Birds, Bad Piggies, Bounce Tales), Supercell Studio (Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, Brawl Stars), Hill Climb Racing
France: Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed, Just Dance, Far Cry, Tom Clancy's series, Prince of Persia, Watch Dogs, The Crew, Driver, Rayman, Rabbids, Petz, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Hungry Shark, Brawlhalla etc), Quantic Dream (Detroid Become Human, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls), Gameloft Studio (Asphalt, Modern Combat, Gangstar Vegas, Minions Rush, Disney Dreamlight Valley), Life is Strange, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Microsoft Flight Simulator, A Plague Tale, several Pixar games, Dishonored, Prey, Deathloop, Stray, Sifu, Dead Cells, Streets of Rage 4, Alone in the Dark, Another World, Flashback, Dofus, Zombie Tsunami
Germany: Crytek Studio (first Far Cry game, Crysis, Warface, Hunt Showdown), Enshrouded, Spec Ops: The Line, The Settlers, Everspace, Gothic, some Tropico and Anno games, BeamNG Drive
Hungary: Pinball FX series, War Thunder (created while the developing team was in Russia but now set in Hungary for over a decade)
Iceland: Eve Online
Ireland: Ready or Not, Playrix studio (Gardenscapes, Homescapes, Township; the devs are Russian but moved to Ireland over a decade ago after their first success)
Italy: Assetto Corsa, Hot Wheels Unleashed
Lithuania: Human: Fall Flat, Cooking Fever
Netherlands: Guerrilla Games (Horizon Zero Dawn, Killzone; owned by Sony), Age of Wonders
Norway: Conan Exiles, Dune: Awakening, Megabonk
Poland: CD Projekt Red Studio (The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077), Techland (Dying Light, Dead Island, Call of Juarez), This War of Mine, Frostpunk, Green Hell, Outriders, Superhot, Ghostunner (co-developed with a Danish company), Silent Hill 2 remake, Darkwood, Layers of Fear, Carrion, Sniper: Ghost Warrior, Manor Lords, Shadow Warrior, Two Worlds, Lords of the Fallen, Thief Simulator, House Flipper, Cooking Simulator
Romania: PC Building Simulator (in collaboration with a British studio)
Serbia: Scorn, Top Eleven Football Manager
Slovenia: Mordhau, Talking Tom
Spain: Metroid Dread, 3 games of the Castelvania series, Commandos, Blasphemous, Gris, Deadlight, Moonlighter, Extreme Car Driving Simulator
Sweden: Minecraft, DICE Studio (Battlefield, Star Wars Battlefront, Mirror's Edge; owned by EA), Hazelight Studios (It Takes Two, Split Fiction, A Way Out), Massive Entertainment Studio (two Tom Clancy titles for Ubisoft, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Star Wars Outlaws), Paradox Interactive Studio (Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis, Stellaris), Payday, Helldivers, Arc Raiders, R.E.P.O., Just Cause, Valheim, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, four Need for Speed games, Wolfenstein since 2014, Unravel, Little Nightmares, Magicka, V-Rising, Goat Simulator, Satisfactory, Peak (co-developed with an American studio), RV There Yet?, Mad Max, Raft, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, Hotline Miami, Candy Crush Saga, Geometry Dash
Switzerland: Farming Simulator, Transport Fever, 8 Ball Pool
UK: Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider (till 2006), Batman: Arkham, Football Manager, Need for Speed (most of the titles), Forza Horizon and Motorsport, Burnout, Grid, F1, Wipeout, Driver (now under Ubisoft), Rare Studio (Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Star Fox Adventures, Sea of Thieves), most of the Lego collaboration games (Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, Marvel etc), Harry Potter games (till 2011), Facepunch Studios (Garry's Mod, Rust), Worms series, RuneScape, No Man's Sky, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, DmC: Devil May Cry, Lemmings, Frogger, Alien Isolation, Phasmophobia, Fall Guys, PowerWash Simulator, Until Dawn, Sniper Elite, Total War series, LittleBigPlanet, Monument Valley, Jurassic World Evolution, Elite Dangerous, Vampire Survivors, Fable, Prison Architect, Overcooked, Surgeon Simulator, Elite, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Theme Park, Theme Hospital, Populous, The Last Ninja, Sing Star series, First Touch Games Studio (Dream League Soccer, Score Hero), Plague Inc, Sonic Dash
Ukraine: Bubble Shooter, Metro, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Sherlock Holmes games, Cossacks series
Russia: Tetris, Escape from Tarkov, Hello Neighbor, Loop Hero, Atomic Heart (the studio is now set in Cyprus), War Robots (now in Cyprus), Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (the studio is now in Cyprus), Shadow Fight and Vector (the main studios are now in Armenia and Cyprus), Cut the Rope
Turkey: Mount & Blade, Supermarket Simulator, Traffic Rider, Hunter Assassin
Posted by mg10pp
7 Comments
And here is an handy TLDR of the main titles:
World of Tanks, Baldur’s Gate 3, Kingdom Come Deliverance, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Hitman, Subway Surfers, Snake (for Nokia), Cities Skyline, Angry Birds, Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, War Thunder, Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance, Far Cry, Tom Clancy’s series, Prince of Persia, Detroid Become Human, Asphalt, Life is Strange, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Human: Fall Flat, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Dying Light, Minecraft, Battlefield, Star Wars Battlefront, Payday 2, Helldivers 2, It Takes Two, Candy Crush, GTA, Tomb Raider, Batman: Arkham, Football Manager, Need for Speed, Forza Horizon, Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, Lego collaboration games, Garry’s Mod, Rust, Worms series, RuneScape, No Man’s Sky, Phasmophobia, Bubble Shooter, Tetris
Thanks, Europe is the Bastion of video games excellence.
Wait, Devil May Cry was made by a UK developer? I thought all games were exclusively being made by Capcom?
Forza Motorsport was Turn 10, not playground
Holy shit I wasn’t aware my country made all that, Until Dawn is a surprise I thought it was American.
I thought that in Hungary The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing or Warhammer 40k: Martyr would be the leading titles, I really didn’t expect Pinball FX to be the biggest.
A fun fact that probably interests very few people: **Neocore Games** is the largest Hungarian development studio, and their next game will be the most expensive Hungarian game ever, with a budget of 4.5 billion forints, which sounds like a lot, but in dollars it’s only about 12 million.
Unfortunately, the Hungarian game industry isn’t very big. The largest studio is clearly Neocore Games, and they also have the most potential.
**Kite Games** also deserves a mention for Sudden Strike 4–5.
As for **Zen Studios**, even though pinball has never interested me, Castlestorm is entertaining. Unfortunately, this studio almost never manages to achieve success unless they make pinball games — even though Operencia: The Stolen Sun is also quite fun.
**Primal Game Studio** could have deserved recognition after Mandragora, but sadly they went into liquidation.
**GrapeOcean Technologies** developed Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness, which is supposedly a perfectly good low‑budget Pillars of Eternity-style CRPG.
**The Wild Gentlemen** also deserve a mention, Chicken Police turned out brilliant.
The Codename series, S.W.I.N.E. Imperium Galactica II, these are classics, but I have a feeling that internationally not many people know them, even though Imperium Galactica II is still considered the best Hungarian game ever made.
And by the way, Heroes VI is also Hungarian, which unfortunately went off the rails, but the reason is unknown. Yes, it became oversimplified, but apparently Ubisoft interfered with the half‑finished code, forcing systems on the developers that they didn’t want and didn’t understand.
The game consisted of 1.5–2 million lines of source code, which is supposedly very large. Ubisoft’s people added new ideas to the game and changed existing features even in the final months. Already in the demo there were complaints about the town screen, which only used the simple in‑game 3D model and nothing else, but that was Ubisoft’s idea. Later they replaced it with a hand‑drawn 2D version. but even before development began, a lot of content was cut because of Ubisoft, such as the Academy faction.
And I must mention that the game is still beautiful today, Heroes VI still looks good even though it was built on the Armies of Exigo engine.
Unfortunately, I don’t see the Hungarian game industry gaining real strength. Only Neocore Games’ success could improve things, and if the Hungarian state supported game development, even distributing 2 billion forints per year among studios (about 5.5 million dollars), that alone would help.
And in the past, many strategy games were made in Hungary. I wouldn’t complain if that happened again, or if more eurojank RPGs were made, especially now that Piranha Bytes and Spiders have sadly shut down.
That’s great but the UK isn’t in Europe 😆