The Game Industry Conference reasserts its importance within the European game industry.
This year, almost 3300 participants and business attendees gathered in Poznan, Poland, for Eastern Europe’s most important gaming event, as the Game Industry Conference continues to grow and set new records year after year.
Poznan, Poland – October 28th, 2024: Last Sunday, 27.10, the Game Industry Conference (GIC) closed its doors in Poznan, Poland. This year marked the 17th edition of GIC, and the conference has truly established itself as the biggest and most significant business event in the region’s gaming industry. A record number of over 3290 business attendees and participants gathered for hundreds of high-quality talks and networking opportunities.
Over the course of several days, 199 professional talk sessions, panels, and roundtables took place, featuring over 290 speakers across 9 parallel stages - a nearly 50% increase in the number of speakers compared to the 2023 edition. This year’s conference offered more side events than ever before, including Geek Startups & Feedback Battle Royale, Women in Games Day, GameDev Investment Forum, HowToMultiplayer - Dev Summit, GIC Legal Summit powered by dotlaw, and Mobile Summit in partnership with Game Camp and Google. Attendees enjoyed traditional, complimentary city tours showcasing Poznan’s most beautiful landmarks. Every aspect of the event was expertly prepared and executed with the support of generous sponsors and dedicated conference partners.
Beyond hours of lectures and countless meetings, the Game Industry Conference includes an extensive B2B zone, which this year featured a record-setting 57 booths—30% more than in 2023. Major companies, including Larian Studios Warsaw, 11 Bit Studios, and Fool's Theory, participated and opened doors to new candidates during the CEE region's largest job fair.
Saturday 26 October marked the much-anticipated Central and Eastern European Game Awards (CEEGA), where the top honor went to Croteam for their game Talos Principle 2. These awards were born from the collaboration of 16 industry associations across Eastern Europe, reinforcing the strength and unity of the region's gaming industry. The full list of award winners is as follows:
- Visual Art - Let Bions Be Bygones, by Bohemian Pulp
- Audio - Ghostrunner 2, by One More Level
- Design - Talos Principle 2, by Croteam
- Narrative - Let Bions Be Bygones, by Bohemian Pulp
- Technology - Ghostrunner 2, by One More Level
- Hidden Gem - Death must die, by Realm Archive
- Best Mobile Game - Raccoon Mania, Sun Storm Studio
- Best Game – Talos Principle 2, by Croteam
This year, for the first time, the CEEGA Awards featured additional "Code the Rights" awards, presented by Amnesty International in collaboration with industry experts. In the "Best Game" category, nominees included titles released between August 2023 and August 2024 that explore themes of exclusion, acceptance, and equality. The 2024 award was presented to Baldur’s Gate 3 by Larian Studios.
In addition, a Special Award, granted solely at the discretion of Amnesty International, was introduced to recognize games that address significant social issues, regardless of release date. This year, the prize was given to 11 Bit Studios for their impactful game This War of Mine.
"We want to recognize creators who reflect the complexity and diversity of reality—those who don’t shy away from difficult global issues shaping our world, such as social inequalities, armed conflicts, migration, and refugee crises, but approach them with care and thoughtfulness. They use the power of media to offer insightful diagnoses, ask the right questions, and bring important topics into public debate," said Anna Błaszczak-Banasiak, Director of Amnesty International Poland.
The date of the 2025 edition will be announced in the upcoming weeks. For more information about The Game Industry Conference, please visit https://gic.gd/
The Game Industry Conference once again partnered up with the event networking app GRIP, which not only digitalized the ticketing system but also facilitated the planning of business meetings on-site and online and gave attendees the ability to personalize their event schedule on their mobile devices.
ABOUT GAME INDUSTRY CONFERENCE
The GIC, along with Poznan Game Arena, forms the biggest game event east of Cologne. It features professional knowledge exchange, workshops, roundtables, a B2B exhibition area, GRIP-meetings, Geek Careers recruitment opportunities, and networking parties. Not to mention the Central Eastern Europe Game Awards ceremony, GameDev Investment Forum, and many more. Since its beginnings in 2008, the GIC grew to become one of the most significant events in Europe’s gaming landscape. For more information, please visit https://gic.gd/.
