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Izmir’s first game development center will be in DEPARK

Netmarble Games Turkey and Dokuz Eylül University, has agreed to establish İzmir’s first digital games and design incubator in Dokuz Eylül Technology Development Zone (DEPARK).

Within the scope of the agreement, the aim is to promote the relationship between the experts, lecturers, assistants, researchers, students and ecosystems of both institutions within the framework of education and training. It is also aimed to share and publish researches which have become public records, to convey the experiences of the parties’ perceptions of education and training, and share the experiences after attending scientific and social events.

The activities to be carried out include mobile gaming development, software development, publishing, development of related research projects, elimination of mutual training needs and designing and implementing of joint activities.

It’ll bring talented and creative people together

Netmarble Games EMEA CEO Barış Özistek, “Netmarble Games Headquartered in Korea is one of the world’s largest and most valuable gaming company. We have over 4,000 employees. 100 million people in the world are playing our games. Among the world’s largest game companies, we are the only one with established offices in Turkey. Turkey is the center of Europe, Middle East and of Africa for us. It is a very important and very valuable project for us. I think Izmir is an important center that brings together both creative people and developers. It is also possible to channel it to the gaming industry and to create game projects that will be able to reach global success. ”

“2023 export target is 1 billion dollars”

Stating that Turkey has produced such successful companies in the recent years, Özistek added: “As Turkey we need more small and medium-sized game companies. There is a need for qualified studios. Therefore, these type of projects are going to make a contribution to the qualified workforce and pave the way of success for Turkey. Not only industry and university cooperation, but also politics plays an important role here. Our 2023 digital exports target is 1 billion dollars. Games are one of the four main sectors that need to be supported. Games alone could achieve the target of Turkey’s 2023 export goal. It’s not too late yet. We can develop a very good game in one-and-a-half years, bring it to world markets and export $1 billion by itself. I think that such important collaborations will open the future for us, and I think that Izmir will contribute a lot in the geographical sense.”

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Deputy Rector of the Dokuz Eylül University, Prof. Dr. Erdal Çelik: “As Dokuz Eylül University, we acknowledge the importance of being in the digital world of the future and believe that the digital gaming market will provide serious employment and added value. We strive to develop new projects that will expand the capillaries of the information sector by creating new collaborations. We think University industry cooperation should be at Silicon Valley levels; we need role models and intra-sector consolidations. We believe that this is important for the rapid development of both human resources and technical infrastructure. ”

“We will make an exciting start”

Dr. Çelik also stated: “We supported all kinds of business models based on Industry 4.0 and we based our projects on this. We wantto imprint Dokuz Eylül University on the digital world. In this direction, we plan to work in the digital gaming industry from mobile applications to PC and console games. We will sign the agreement here today between DEPARK and Netmarble, and with this protocol we will start a brand new and exciting beginning in to mobile game development. Thus, our university in the field of digital gaming will act as both a incubator and a business partner to support R & D work. ”

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