Interview with Gero Miccichè (EA): Global Hubs, Italy, and Crunch – The Future of Gaming According to a Producer

The curtain falls on the first day of Digital Dragons in Krakow with an informal but content-rich chat, strictly in Italian. Over coffee and some biscuits, we had a conversation with Gero Miccichè, Development Director at Electronic Arts (EA) and Game Production lecturer at the Digital Bros Game Academy.

The gaming industry is undergoing a profound metamorphosis: from the entry of large sovereign investment funds to the geographical redefinition of production, up to historical internal criticalities such as work sustainability and the culture of crunch. With the perspective of someone who experiences the dynamics of AAA giants but keeps a firm foot in training the talents of tomorrow, Gero offers us a clear and passionate overview of where the global market is heading and what real cards Italy needs to start playing.

Q: Let's start with the elephant in the room: the presence of the PIF (Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia) and large investment funds within Electronic Arts and, more generally, in the industry. Do you think this massive influx of capital is leading to the birth of new global production hubs, much like what happened twenty years ago with Poland?

Gero: I am obviously far from the major financial acquisition dynamics, but looking at the overall picture of the industry, it's clear that we are experiencing a moment of enormous change that all of us in the game industry are following with interest. It's a topic I often discuss with my students, because a producer must develop a strong market mentality.

If we look at the industrial history of gaming – which is young, about 50 years old – we've moved from the North America-Japan duopoly to the inclusion of Europe, first with England, then with the evolution of Poland as one of the most important hubs in the world, without forgetting Scandinavia or Canada. Today, Saudi Arabia and other areas are investing massively because they have realized that gaming not only generates profits but also has an enormous cultural and influential value. Video games today convey ideas and a collective mindset.

However, creating a new hub requires much more than just money. With capital, you can hire leaders, buy resources, and open schools, but the real challenge is cultural: you have to create the mentality and conditions for sustainability and livability in those areas. Dubai and Riyadh are undertaking similar operations, with impacts even on local laws and rights. We will see in the long run if they manage to create a lasting financial and cultural ecosystem, but I believe that geographical expansion is far from over: let's also look at small miracles emerging in Brazil or certain areas of Africa."

Q: Has the mobile market played a role in this expansion, or do you still see it as a separate sector?

Gero: "Mobile has literally democratized gaming, putting it in everyone's hands. It's often snubbed by hardcore gamers, but it has broken down old boundaries. I always use the example of my brother-in-law, a man in his fifties who is far removed from video game logic: he plays Royal Match on his smartphone for 20 minutes every day. For our statistics, he is effectively a gamer. Furthermore, mobile has served as a conduit for many women to enter an industry that was initially mistakenly perceived as a 'boys' game.' If there's talk of a crisis in the sector today, looking at Newzoo's numbers actually shows that the industry is economically growing. Recent layoffs have other structural causes; Artificial Intelligence, for example, has very little to do with it yet. We are far from having AI make video games."

Q: Speaking of hubs abroad, we are two Italians working outside of Italy. But what is happening in Italy? Today, Italian designers and programmers are found everywhere in the world. Why, then, does the Italian system still struggle so much to emerge as a structured industry?

Gero: "Italy still has several steps to take. I like to use the pizza metaphor: ten years ago, it was very difficult to eat a good one abroad, but today in London or Krakow you find extraordinary pizzas because those who had that know-how exported it. Similarly, Italy would need to attract foreign talent to bring them into Italian studios. Some are bravely trying: I'm thinking of Stormind Games, a fantastic Sicilian reality that hired the former Creative Director of Don't Nod. They show that aiming high is possible, even in Sicily, where years ago they would have laughed in your face.

The main problem in Italy is the lack of a forward-thinking political vision. We have the Tax Credit, an excellent measure that is stimulating the industry, but it only comes when you already have the game in hand or have presented it. In Poland, however, government support and direct funding start from the prototyping phase, and it has been normal for ten years. The State should act like a pater familias that directs and incentivizes strategic sectors. In Italy, they prefer to non-repayable finance films that cost a million euros in tax breaks and then gross 10,000 euros at the box office. The government must realize that gaming is the most important entertainment industry, as well as an art form recognized even at MoMA in New York. We have creativity in our blood and DNA; if politics stopped putting spokes in our wheels, we could take off."

Q: You teach Game Production at the Digital Bros Game Academy. What is the situation like for the profiles you train? Is there demand in Italy for coordination roles?

Gero: "Usually the most sought-after courses are Game Design, Programming, and Art. The role of the Producer is never quite understood, when in reality it is the one who pulls the strings, balancing creativity with business reasons and interfacing with stakeholders. For years in Italy, this position was underestimated, thinking 'they don't write the game anyway,' leading to sensational commercial failures due to a lack of roadmap, planning, and time management.

In recent years, incredibly, almost all students who graduated from my course have found work directly in Italy (in realities like Milestone, Untold Games, One O One Games or Day For Night). Even historical studios like Tiny Bull have sent their professionals to train with me. Personally, I constantly try to gather know-how from England to redistribute it in Italy. It literally infuriates me that the English or French should be considered better than us in this field."

Q: Let's change the subject and touch on a sore point. You are a strong critic of crunch (massive and forced overtime). How can this practice be avoided in modern gaming, while preserving the quarterly results required by companies?

Gero: "Crunch, understood as a constant practice, is, first and foremost, a managerial failure. I was fortunate at Electronic Arts and Gameloft; I never had to endure it. This doesn't mean I never worked overtime. I remember during a Triple A project, in the last days before delivery, a Spanish programmer was working on Saturday to fix some code. I wrote to him to stop and rest, and he replied: 'Gero, I appreciate the concern, but in this company, I have never been forced to do overtime. Now there are the last details, my name is on this game, and I want it to be perfect'.

This is a virtuous system. Overtime was always compensated, monetarily or with additional vacation days (as we did at Gameloft). A leader's duty is to protect the team from toxic dynamics, because in the long run, teams forced into crunch collapse. We have the historical example of the failure of the team behind L.A. Noire immediately after the game's release.

In this industry, almost all of us work out of passion: a programmer could go work in finance, earn triple, and stress half as much. We must not be like in the TV series Boris, where René Ferretti and the producer say 'no contracts, passion is needed!' That is the perfect transposition of toxic culture. Fortunately, in Europe, compared to the wrong side of the Atlantic (America), we are much more protected from this point of view. Great games are created only with healthy teams and in healthy working conditions. If you destroy people's joy, you kill the inner child that drove us to make video games. Exceptional overtime, voluntarily experienced as an evening in the studio eating pizza with colleagues, can happen and is even fun, but it must remain an exception."

Thanks to Gero for his availability and the wonderful chat at Digital Dragons. Good luck to him and all future Italian developers!