[From the Industry] Google and MY.GAMES Venture Capital Launch EMEA Accelerator Programme for Video Game Developers

This a news release directly from the industry or our partners, reproduced here in full in addition to our usual editorial coverage.

Google and international gaming brand MY.GAMES today announced a joint accelerator programme, titled Game Drive, for promising mobile game studios and projects.

Developers have until Friday 8 January 2021 to submit proposals for consideration. From those submissions, the most promising projects will be selected by a panel of Google and MY.GAMES experts, who will provide consultation on developing the projects further and scaling them globally. Successful applicants will be invited to an online Demo Day with key stakeholders from MY.GAMES and Google on 28 January 2021, where developers will receive detailed feedback on their projects, in English.

Support will include but not limited to:

• Expert assessment of a project and analysis of its business potential
• Consulting and recommendations for product improvement
• Networking and access to the MY.GAMES ecosystem and the company’s internal training projects
• Google experts’ evaluation of the project, focused on launching in international markets
• Opportunity to be considered for investments by MY.GAMES

Initially, the accelerator programme is open to studios across Western Europe, Russia and the CIS region, Turkey, Israel, the Middle East, and Africa. To submit a project and to read the terms and conditions, developers should head to http://mgvc.com/gamedrive.

The Game Drive marks the first collaboration project between Google and MY.GAMES. Throughout 2021, both parties will work towards expanding the scope of Game Drive to more territories, and develop further initiatives aimed at different types of game developers.

“Mobile game development is an extremely competitive market and an idea alone is often not enough to acquire users,” commented Ilya Karpinsky, MGVC Managing Director, MY.GAMES CSO. “By launching this accelerator and building a partnership with Google, we hope to provide an unprecedented programme for mobile game developers across Europe by providing support and expertise from two of the largest players in the market. This is the first stage of our partnership and we hope to announce more initiatives in the future.”

Meir Brand, VP EMEA Emerging Markets, Google: “There’s huge creativity in the fast-growing gaming industry. We hope that this accelerator programme with MY.GAMES Venture Capital will support talented and promising app developers in Western Europe and other countries, helping them to grow and go global, while continuing working from their home countries.”