 | |
 The building on Neude square where the organisation was based from 2010 - 2020 | |
| Company type | Private foundation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | June 19, 2008 |
| Defunct | January 1, 2025 |
| Fate | Closed amid funding issues |
| Headquarters | Utrecht, Netherlands |
| Website | www |
The Dutch Game Garden is a video game studio incubator which was launched in Utrecht, The Netherlands in 2008 using funding from the European Regional Development Fund. The organisation is the largest such program in the Netherlands. [1] [2]
The universities in Utrecht- Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht and Utrecht University had been offering courses in game development since 2002. The Utrecht city council and Dutch government recognised the potential for the rapidly growing video game sector in 2008, which at the time suffered from a lack of visibility in the Netherlands. The only major studio in the country at that time was Guerrilla Games, and so the Dutch Game Garden was conceived as a means to invest in new studios. Many studios at the Dutch Game Garden were formed by former students from games programs at the local universities. [3]
in 2010, the program was relocated to the former ABN AMRO building on Neude square, which offered much more space than the initial venue. Some of the companies then working at the garden were considering moving out of the city in search of larger offices, so the move was intended to keep them present in Utrecht. [4] By 2014 the program had resulted in the creation of 200 jobs and 6 million euros in revenue. [5] The organisation relocated again in 2020, to Europalaan 400, in order to be close to technology start-ups in the Dotslash community. [6]
In September 2024, it was announced that the Dutch Game Garden would close at the end of the year, as the province of Utrecht changed conditions associated with the subsidies that had funded it. [7] [8]
In 2010, the Dutch Game Garden introduced the INDIGO showcase, an interactive exhibition of the Dutch video games. It has become an annual event in the Netherlands, [9] and showcases Dutch video games at the international events. [10] [11]
Utrecht is the fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the province of Utrecht. The municipality of Utrecht is located in the eastern part of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Netherlands, and includes Haarzuilens, Vleuten and De Meern. It has a population of 361,699 as of December 2021.
North Holland is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. As of January 2023, it had a population of about 2,952,000 and a total area of 4,092 km2 (1,580 sq mi), of which 1,429 km2 (552 sq mi) is water.
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Hitman is a stealth game franchise created by Danish developer IO Interactive. The player controls the contract killer Agent 47, who travels the world to assassinate various targets who are assigned to him.
IO Interactive A/S (IOI) is a Danish video game developer based in Copenhagen, best known for creating and developing the Hitman and Kane and Lynch franchises. IO Interactive's most recent game is Hitman 3, which was released in January 2021.
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Danger Close Games was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in March 1995 as joint venture between DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft under the name DreamWorks Interactive, with studios in Redmond, Washington, and Los Angeles.
Solar power in the Netherlands has an installed capacity of around 23,904 megawatt (MW) of photovoltaics as of the end of 2023. Around 4,304 MW of new capacity was installed during 2023.
The Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research is a research institute at Utrecht University. The Bijvoet Centre performs research on the relation between the structure and function of biomolecules, including proteins and lipids, which play a role in biological processes such as regulation, interaction and recognition. The Bijvoet Centre houses advanced infrastructures for the analysis of proteins and other biomolecules using NMR, X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy and mass spectrometry. The institute is named after famous Dutch chemist Johannes Martin Bijvoet, who worked at Utrecht University.
ZombsRoyale.io is a battle royale game developed by End Game Interactive. It was released for web browsers in 2018, with iOS and Android ports later that year. A simplified take on the genre, game matches follow up to 100 players who must fight on a large map to be the last survivors. It uses simple 2D graphics and a top-down perspective. The game has amassed over 120,000,000 downloads and unique players across iOS, Android, Web Browser, and PC as of 2024.
My.Games is a Dutch video game publisher and developer headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Some of the company's titles include War Robots, Rush Royale, Hustle Castle, Left to Survive, Zero City, Warface, and Tacticool.
Volt Netherlands is a social liberal political party in the Netherlands. It is the Dutch chapter of Volt Europa, a political movement that operates on a European level.
Nixxes Software B.V. is a Dutch video game developer based in Utrecht. It was founded by former demoscene developer Jurjen Katsman in 1999 to port the game Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver to the Dreamcast. In July 2021, the company was acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment to help bring its games from PlayStation platforms to personal computers. As of 2020, 40% of Nixxes' work comprises game ports, with the remainder being co-development efforts like the production of art assets.
