Skövde has unveiled a series of plaques to celebrate the town’s incredible video game talent, with a Walk of Game now proudly displayed in the town centre.
It’s really hard to put into perspective how small Skövde is in the grand scheme of things. Skövde has just 60,000 people living within figurative walls. For those in the USA, that’s the same as St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Which would put it just inside the top 600 largest cities in the USA. For those in the UK, it’s about the same size as Chelsea, the borough in London. What we are trying to say is, that Skövde is small, yet it has big ideas.
I attended the most recent Sweden Game Conference, at which the Walk of Game was officially unveiled as part of the day’s activities. Around a hundred people circle as the plaques are revealed, to a backdrop of music from V Rising. The unveiling was done game to game, with a short speech from someone from the studio. Plagues were revealed for Valheim, V Rising, Raft, Satisfactory, and Goat Simulator. Just writing that list of games out it’s crazy to think it was all done in such a small town.
In fact, something I heard during one keynote was that 1% of the population of Skövde works in the video game industry. While, it’s not the thing the town is the most known for just yet; that would be the large Volvo factory located on the outskirts of town. The video game industry is growing, and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down.
The Walk of Game
As mentioned above, the Walk of Game celebrates five titles from four studios that have achieved huge success in the global video game space. The Walk of Game actually has criteria that each title had to meet to be included:
At least 3 million copies sold or at least 15 million downloads for a free title.
The majority of the game must be developed in Skövde. With 50% of the total development time taking place in the City.
Original IP. The game and its IP must be the sole idea of the studio.
And that’s about it, so, let’s meet the five games:
Goat Simulator
The OG of the Skövde industry, Goat Simulator came out back in 2014 and has been one of the most successful games ever to come out of Sweden. Developed by Coffee Stain Studios (more on them later), the game is reported to have sold just shy of 5 million copies in its life, spawning a sequel in Goat Simulator 3, and even a Remaster of the original coming soon. We asked around about Goat Simulator 2, and we were informed that it did come out, you just forgot.
Valheim
Coming out in 2021 in early access, Valheim is a beast of a game. Spawning almost overnight success, Valheim has taken on another life and has become one of the most-played titles on Steam since its release. The game boasts a 93% positive review score out of nearly 500,000 reviews on Steam. The game had a peak player count of half a million players and is still bringing in over 20,000 players in any given 24-hour period. It’s safe to say that Valheim has been a massive hit, with estimated sales somewhere between 12 and 15 million.
Raft
Raft was the game that personally made me the happiest to see on this list. My wife and I played Raft on every major release on Steam, as it went from a sandbox survival title to a have a mysterious story woven throughout the world. Raft would get a 1.0 release in 2022 claiming a peak player count of just over 100,000 people. What always Raft so special to me was I discovered it was developed in Skövde after I had Pizza next door to the studio and saw the developer Redbeet Interactive’s name on the door.
V Rising
Released in 2024 after a successful period in Early Access, V Rising from Iron Gate Studios. V Rising pealed at 150,000 players during Early Access, with the game continuing to grow and release content ever since. We gave the game a very good review score (please go check that out), and having spoken to some of the team at the event I can assure you they deserve the success they had with V Rising.
Satisfactory
Not satisfied with one game on this list, Coffee Stain Studios decided to release Satisfactory into 1.0 in 2024 and it’s fair to say people like it. The most recent release of any game on this list, Satisfactory had a peak player count of 186,000, with the game still getting over 100,000 player peaks daily since then.
What Does the Future Hold for Skövde
It’s safe to say that the developers of Skövde are not done yet, with more massive games releasing seemingly monthly. Early this year, we had Lightyear Frontier release, a cozy farming sim game with a difference. That difference is you control a massive mech suit. The game is still in Early Access and is also part of the PC Game Pass cycle.
We’ve also seen titles such as the upcoming title Overthrown gain a lot of viral success on TikTok ahead of its 2024 Early Access launch.
Who knows what the next plague will be in the Walk of Game, Skövde but it’s safe to say we might not have to wait too long to see a new one added. We’ll continue to cover the Skövde gaming scene in the coming years and will look to have a more detailed list of just how many games are currently in development in this City.
Endless Talent
One crazy thing about Skövde is that it seems impossible to work out exactly how many developers are even in this town. If you look online, you’ll get 26 as the answer. But I played 11 games at the Sweden Game Conference, and none of those developers are on that list… again, this City is talented, and it deserves to be highlighted.
