New Zealand's booming video game sector making waves around the world

The success of Kiwi-made video games comes at a time when much of the global gaming industry is stagnating, according to Kate Edwards, executive director for the International Game Developers Association.

"You've got a nice ecosystem that is well supported by the government, you've got an education system that's supplying talented people going into the games industry.

"As far as sustaining that level of growth, it's possible. That's one thing that I think makes New Zealand stand out right now is seeing that growth in the face of an industry that has not seen growth, at least internally," she tells RNZ's Nine to Noon.

A number of major game companies around the world had bitten off more than they could chew during the pandemic, Edwards says.

"During Covid-19, a lot of game companies ramped up, they hired a lot of people, because during Covid-19 we saw a huge boom in gameplay because people were stuck at home... A lot of people started playing games for the first time," she explains.

"A lot of companies mistakenly thought this wasn't going to end, so when things went back to normal, a lot of companies had to downsize."

New Zealand's gaming industry is still young, Edwards says, and the vast majority of our studios would be considered "indie" or "double-A" compared to major international publishers like PlayStation, Microsoft and Nintendo as "triple-A" giants, Edwards said.

But it's "indie" and "double-A" studios that experienced the most growth and success in 2025, she says.

"Let's take some recent examples that have been very successful. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which swept The Game Awards just a few days ago, was made by about a 20-person team in France.

"Even the year before, the game Balatro, which just went crazy in terms of both popularity, sales, and awards it got, that was made by one individual in Saskatchewan (in Canada) who still remains anonymous. So the scale of the studio is not really the [measure] of success."

Christchurch-built indie game Dredge achieved massive success in 2023 despite being made by just four people.

Some games have a relatively short life-cycle, with developers moving on to sequels or other projects, while others would persist for several years at a time, Edwards says

"Certainly, people like things new. [Clair Obscur and Balatro] are examples of games that are very new and very fresh... At the same time, a lot of companies have had tremendous success with the long tail of an IP that's very popular," she says.

"Look at some of the franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield, games like that which have been going on for decades now."

New Zealand-made online game Path of Exile was released in 2013 and had maintained a steady player base for over ten years before its sequel, Path of Exile 2, was released to even greater success last year.

Edwards sees parallels between New Zealand's game industry and that of Finland, which is experiencing similar success.

"I see a lot of similarities and parallels there, which is a really good thing because Finland has basically used their national identity as a driving force to say 'Finnish game developers are the best in the world.' Well, I think New Zealand developers are on par with that, as well.

"If they want to lean into national identity as a cohesive force... Because I think that's the key, among the creative sectors... There needs to be that sense of cohesion that we're all in this together.

"Ultimately, we're seeing trans-media and the crossover of all these properties, IP in games being turned into film and TV and vice versa. There's so much room there to work together."