Why are so many casual games being developed and published in Eastern Europe and Russia?
Studios in Eastern Europe develop around 30 percent of the casual games sold worldwide. There are several reasons for that, but the main one is the cost of development — creating a game in Eastern Europe is much cheaper than in North America. This explains the interest of Western publishers in this market. Even though it takes longer for new technologies to penetrate Eastern Europe than the West, this region is home to a great number of skilled professionals capable of making fantastic products literally out of nothing. There are literally hundreds of companies in Eastern Europe and Russia trying to come up with their own game ideas. This is because casual games require significantly smaller investments than hard core games, and because the task of finding an investor to sponsor a large scale project is very complex. Many studios simply invest their own money in their projects. I also think national character plays an important role. A Russian proverb says “You can’t buy the joy of li
