Pier Paolo Patrucco (p), Enrico Bertacchini (p), Cecilia Maronero

Nicola Costalunga

There is widespread agreement that cultural and creative industries exhibit a propensity to cluster in urban areas. The literature has extensively explored the conditions and mechanisms conducive to cluster formation (Lorenzen and Frederiksen, 2008; Gong and Hassink, 2017; Chapain and Sagot-Duvauroux, 2020). However, the relative importance of these factors across specific cultural and creative sectors remains insufficiently understood.
This paper examines the clustering patterns and drivers within the videogame industry. Employing a systematic review of 36 scholarly articles and about 90 documented cases of videogame industry clusters worldwide, the study addresses three questions: (i) Which videogame industry clusters have been addressed? (ii) What are their structural characteristics? (iii) What are the main drivers of their formation?
To address the first question, we characterize the study cases in terms of geographic location, type of urban area, size of the cluster and period of emergence. To address the second questions, adopting a theoretical framework inspired by Brenner and Mühlig (2013), we disentangle the dynamics of cluster formation into 18 factors and mechanisms grouped in three key dimensions: prerequisites, triggering factors, and augmenting processes.
Our preliminary findings reveal a wide geographic coverage of videogame industry clusters, with cases documented across America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Clusters are not confined to large metropolitan areas; they have also emerged in smaller urban settings, reflecting the diverse spatial dynamics of the industry. Additionally, the temporal distribution of cluster formation indicates distinct periods linked to the historical development of the videogame industry at national levels, suggesting significant contextual influences.
As for the drivers of cluster formation, we expect not only to assess the most frequent factors identified in the literature, but also differences in their relevance across cluster types.
The paper contributes to the literature on clustering in cultural and creative industries by shedding light on how unique features of the videogame industry influence cluster dynamics. Furthermore, it highlights distinct conditions and factors as peculiar enablers of cluster sustainability and growth in this sector.

Nicola Costalunga (p), Riccardo Fassone

Thomas Paris

The video game production sector represents an industry not only of growing economic value but of increasing importance in the everyday social and cultural spheres. This industry is characterised by important relationship mechanisms – formal and informal – that are found in all the sector’s production clusters around the world. This is also the case of the video game production cluster in Turin, a city with an important industrial, economic and cultural history located in northwestern Italy.
This work intends to propose a reconstruction of the evolution of the Turin video game production cluster, highlighting the peculiarities that characterise it mainly due to the particular features linked to its socio-cultural-spatial location. In particular, the operating mechanisms, both formal and informal, that characterise and diversify the Turin cluster – with respect to other sector ecosystems in Italy – will be highlighted, thus determining its strengths and inherent weaknesses.
The methodology of this work is based on the study and analysis of primary and secondary sources. The direct sources are composed of a series of semi-structured qualitative interviews with the main actors belonging to the Turin video game ecosystem (N=21) and institutional documentation created ad-hoc within the cluster. This study is part of the Horizon research project “GAME-ER” (Gaming Clusters Across Multiple European Regions), whose goal is to research how video game clusters emerge, develop and sustain themselves, with a focus on local and regional clusters located in five European countries (France, Czechia, Portugal, Italy and Scotland).

Thomas Paris (p), Chahira Mehouachi, Tristan Guyon

Pier Paolo Patrucco

This research examines how creative clusters function as vital ecosystems for cultural entrepreneurship in the video games industry, using Angoulême, France as a case study. Creative clusters provide cultural entrepreneurs with crucial resources, networks, and collaborative opportunities that enhance their sustainability and innovation potential.
The video games industry represents a valuable research context due to its distinctive characteristics: rapid technological evolution, hybrid skillset requirements, project-based production structures, and tension between global markets and local cultural specificity. These features illuminate broader patterns in cultural entrepreneurship.
Our longitudinal study of Angoulême reveals a distinctive ecosystem characterized by homogeneity in studio structure coupled with heterogeneity in creative industry involvement. Unlike larger counterparts, Angoulême has developed deeper inter-organizational cooperation among similarly sized studios while benefiting from cross-pollination with adjacent sectors like comics and animation. This environment has fostered unique collaborative behaviors, including co-production projects and resource-sharing practices that enhance collective resilience.
Several factors have catalyzed Angoulême's collaborative ecosystem: accessible workspace, geographical proximity, lower living costs, institutional support through ENJMIN (National School of Games and Interactive Digital Media), and knowledge spillovers from co-located creative industries. Digital platforms have streamlined coordination while reinforcing trust across the cluster.
Despite these strengths, the cluster faces significant challenges: regional reorganization complexities, vulnerability to leadership transitions, and reductions in public subsidies. Through mixed-method research combining institutional history analysis and stakeholder interviews, this study advances understanding of how creative clusters effectively support cultural entrepreneurship while enhancing broader economic and social development in the evolving digital creative economy.