Online gaming boom brings 56% turnover growth for Romanian game studio in 2021

The largest Romanian independent game development company, Amber, recorded a turnover of RON 126.8 million (USD 30.5 million) in 2021, up by 56% compared to the previous year. The sales growth was mainly supported by the boom in the online gaming market.

Roughly 70% of Amber’s record turnover came from R&D tied to game development, the company said in a press release. Quality assurance, customer support, localization, and other development support services accounted for the rest.

Jaime Giné, CEO of Amber, says the growth was the result of continuous investments in the development and sales departments. “Access to key talent is essential for Amber and we believe we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the latest industry trends and leverage talent pools in emerging markets,” Giné said. “We expect our growth to accelerate in 2022 to match the growing demand for Amber’s services,” he added.

Amber has benefitted from the boom in online gaming, a trend that is expected to continue in the following years. The global gaming market was valued at almost USD 200 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 340 billion by 2027. Its rapid growth was partly spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. Locked indoors people everywhere turned to games. This also helped the Romanian game development industry to thrive in the first year of the pandemic.

Amber’s growth came from its partnerships with US-based customers and partners, such as Amazon, Disney, and NBC Universal. Another partner, N3twork, published Amber’s successful Tetris Beat game in 2021. The studio developed more than ten other games last year for mobile, PC, and console.

Last year, Amber also became a household name in the pioneering blockchain gaming sector. Games developed on the blockchain allow players to trade cryptocurrency or NFT-based elements.

All in all, Amber outperformed revenue estimates for the past year by 10%, closing the year with the highest turnover ever recorded by an independent gaming studio in Romania. In 2022, the company expects accelerated growth based on increased demand.

To meet that demand head-on, Amber plans to expand to new geographies by establishing subsidiaries, but also through mergers and acquisitions. It also plans to more than double its staff, from 1,000 to 2,100 employees total.

The company’s offices are located in diverse locations like Bucharest, Guadalajara, Montreal, Los Angeles, and Botosani. Last February, Amber opened another office in Kyiv, which has been functioning according to safety measures since the start of the war.