{"id":463140,"date":"2026-08-26T13:12:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T11:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/08\/26\/virkkunen-a-gamescom-leuropa-e-allavanguardia-nei-videogiochi\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T13:58:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T11:58:42","slug":"virkkunen-at-gamescom-europe-is-at-the-forefront-of-the-gaming-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/08\/26\/virkkunen-at-gamescom-europe-is-at-the-forefront-of-the-gaming-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Virkkunen at Gamescom: \u201cEurope is at the forefront of the gaming sector\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The European Commission views video games as a \u201cstrategic sector for the Union\u2019s competitiveness and digital innovation.\u201d Underscoring their importance today (26 August) is Executive Vice\u2011President for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen, who is in Cologne to attend the opening of Gamescom<\/a><\/strong>, the world\u2019s largest event dedicated to the video\u2011game industry. During her visit, she will meet with industry representatives and present the tools through which Brussels supports the sector, including the Creative Europe<\/a> and InvestEU<\/a> programmes, and the new AgoraEU<\/a> proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope is at the forefront of the gaming sector,<\/strong>\u201d Virkkunen said, highlighting the industry\u2019s innovative potential and its contribution to the development of new technological applications. The Vice-President will also discuss digital infrastructure and European measures to protect consumers and children.<\/p>\n

 The visit comes as the European sector seeks to consolidate its position following years marked by redundancies and restructuring. According to the 2024 European Video Game Industry Insights Report<\/a> by the European Games Developer Federation (EGDF) and Video Games Europe, in 2024, the EU industry comprised around<\/strong> 6,600 studios, over 95,000 employees, and a turnover of 24 billion euros<\/strong>. However, growth in the number of studios and turnover has gone hand in hand with substantial stagnation in employment, with some markets experiencing slight declines.<\/p>\n

The sector has also had to contend with issues relating to consumer protection. The Stop Killing Games<\/a> movement, set up to prevent publishers from deactivating legitimately purchased video games after servers are shut down, has brought the issue to the European level. The European Citizens\u2019 Initiative<\/a>, backed by over 1.29 million signatures, received a response from the European Commission on 16 June<\/strong>. Brussels acknowledged citizens’ concerns<\/a> but did not propose any new regulations to prevent publishers from deactivating games, stating that the issue would be addressed through the existing European framework for consumer protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The European Commission views video games as a \u201cstrategic sector for the Union\u2019s competitiveness and digital innovation.\u201d Underscoring their importance today (26 August) is Executive Vice\u2011President for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen, who is in Cologne to attend the opening of Gamescom, the world\u2019s largest event dedicated to the video\u2011game industry. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7896,"featured_media":453451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25774,30805],"tags":[35480,35481,35482,29984,35483,33154,35484,33394,34110],"class_list":["post-463140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-brief","category-industry-markets","tag-agoraeu","tag-colonia","tag-gamescom","tag-henna-virkkunen-en","tag-industria-dei-videogiochi","tag-industria-ue","tag-inveseu","tag-ue","tag-videogiochi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463141,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463140\/revisions\/463141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}