Close to 1,000 meetings, ten Cyprus companies on one stand, and a seat among Europe’s national associations. How the week in Cologne went and what CYGMA is doing next.
gamescom 2026 filled a sold-out 233,000 square meters of Cologne and drew 368,000 visitors from 131 countries. Among the 1,743 exhibiting companies stood 48 country pavilions representing 41 countries, the organized national presences that publishers, investors and policymakers use to read the map of this industry.
For years Cyprus was not on that map. More than 400 game companies operate from the island, and almost none of that was visible where the European industry looks: the halls where it meets, and the datasets where its figures are compiled.
This year, both started to change. The second is closing through data, with CYGMA’s own report on the Cyprus industry and the recent Video Games Europe report on the European industry, in which Cyprus appears for the first time with its 2024 figures. The first closed in Cologne in the last week of August, when Cyprus exhibited as a country for the first time.
Photo: The Games from Cyprus stand at Gamescom Business Area, Cologne, 26-28 August 2026.
Before the halls opened
The week starts with gamescom dev, the developer conference that runs ahead of the show floor. CYGMA had a stand there across both days, in the Confex area, shared with Mellow and Unlimit, and sponsored by Invest Cyprus. CYGMA’s General Manager Andrey Ivashentsev spoke on 25 August, in a session called The Last White Spot in EU Game Dev: How Cyprus Quietly Built 400+ Studios. The title was the argument the delegation had come to make, put as plainly as it could be put.
Photo: Andrey Ivashentsev, General Manager, CYGMA, at gamescom dev, 25 August.
That same evening, before the expo itself began, CYGMA opened the week with Cyprus Nights in Cologne. The guest list was curated, and more than 200 people came. The idea was to bring international publishers, investors, and service partners into the same room as Cyprus-based companies while there was still time to talk properly, rather than in the two-minute gaps between meetings that made up the rest of the week. It was also sponsored by Unlimit, Mellow, Xsolla, and Invest Cyprus.
Photo: Cyprus Nights in Cologne event, 25 August 2026.
On the floor
Brickworks Games, Crazybit, Cubic Games, Ducky, Horns Up Games, Mika Games, PlayServ, STRTL, Tapclap and Wargaming exhibited together in the business area, under one Games from Cyprus identity rather than ten separate signs. CYGMA organized the delegation, raised the funding for it from members and partners, and hosted them all on the stand. Booth partners Unlimit and Mellow stood with the members, Xsolla and GDCy were among the delegation’s sponsors, and Invest Cyprus supported the Cyprus presence.
Cubic Games showed Pixel Gun 2, the sequel to a shooter that passed 300 million players. Ducky had Melon Sandbox, now past 150 million installs. Wargaming presented World of Tanks: HEAT, its new cross-platform tactical shooter, and ran a technology showcase with AWS alongside it. Brickworks Games and STRTL came with work still in development: Sublustrum, a reimagining of the 2008 psychological adventure, and .Curator, written by Richard K. Morgan of Altered Carbon. Mika Games was there as a publisher, with Punko.io, Wargard, and Legendale. Crazybit, Horns Up Games and Tapclap had titles they were not ready to announce, and used the stand to show them privately. PlayServ was there with multiplayer backend infrastructure, the layer other studios build on.
The full delegation, with each company’s games and links, is listed at Games from Cyprus.
Across the five days of gamescom dev and the expo, the delegation held close to a thousand meetings.
"Cyprus today has more than 400 game companies, and until this year very few of the people who shape this industry in Europe were aware of those numbers. We went to Cologne to change that, and our delegation held around a thousand meetings in five days, a good number of which started with someone learning something new about the Cyprus GameDev ecosystem. One week does not finish that work, and we're going to continue our efforts in 2027 with the support of our members, ecosystem partners and government institutions."
Photo: CYGMA team members at the Games from Cyprus stand.
One of the visitors to the stand was Jari-Pekka Kaleva, Managing Director of the European Game Developer Federation. EGDF represents more than 20 national associations across over 25 countries, and works with Video Games Europe on European industry data and the policy positions the sector takes to the EU. The 2024 figures Cyprus appears in were gathered through that collaboration. The conversation covered data gathering, trade missions, and policy work, and ended with an agreement to formalize collaboration on all three points.
Photo: Jari-Pekka Kaleva, Managing Director, EGDF, at the Games from Cyprus stand with the CYGMA team.
The room where the associations meet
Cyprus also took its place at the reception of national game industry associations, alongside countries that have been organizing delegations for a decade or more. Those conversations were the quietest part of the week and probably the most valuable. This was CYGMA’s first time in that room, and the exchange ran in both directions. For most of the associations there, Cyprus was a new name attached to an industry they had not seen counted before. For CYGMA, they are counterparts who have already worked through what the association is meeting for the first time: running a delegation, negotiating with a government, building an annual data series that holds up. Almost none of what was said there will be written up anywhere, which is a fair part of why it was worth being in the room.
What happens now
Three lines of work carry forward from Cologne.
Many of the meetings were with potential partners who could bring real benefits to CYGMA members. Those relationships are developing, and announcements will follow.
Cyprus will be back at gamescom, which runs 23-29 August 2027 in Cologne, and submissions for game companies and partners will open with a separate announcement. The association is also looking at which other events suit a Games from Cyprus delegation, and where else a Cyprus showcase would put the island’s companies in front of the right people.
In Europe, CYGMA will collaborate with EGDF and Video Games Europe on research, share experience with peer associations, and take part in the policy conversations that shape the sector.
Before Cologne, Cyprus had the companies but no presence in the rooms where the industry organises itself. That changed this year, and keeping it will take the same effort again in 2027.
Facts at a glance
gamescom dev booth
- Confex B-03, 25 sqm, 24-25 August 2026
- Stage talk: The Last White Spot in EU Game Dev: How Cyprus Quietly Built 400+ Studios
- Exhibiting with CYGMA: Mellow, Unlimit
- Supported by: Mellow, Unlimit, Invest Cyprus
Cyprus Nights in Cologne
- Früh am Dom, Cologne, 200+ guests, 25 August 2026
- Sponsors: Unlimit, Mellow, Xsolla, Invest Cyprus
- Hall 03.2, Stand F-030G, 78 sqm, 26-28 August 2026
- Exhibiting companies: Brickworks Games, Crazybit, Cubic Games, Ducky, Horns Up Games, Mika Games, PlayServ, STRTL, Tapclap, Wargaming
- Supported by Unlimit, Mellow, Invest Cyprus, Xsolla, GDCy.
About CYGMA
CYGMA, the Cyprus Game Makers Association, is the non-profit industry association representing game creators in Cyprus. It was created by game developers for game developers to support collaboration, share knowledge, represent the industry’s collective interests, and strengthen the island’s place on the global game development map. Its committees work across international outreach, education and academic partnerships, investment and platform relations, policy and regulation, and responsible play.