Video games in Turkey is a massive industry with many branches. Video gaming also covers pastime in Turkey that includes the production, sale, import/export, and playing of video games.[1][2]
Market statistics
In 2021, the market statistics in total reached 1.2B$, around 600M$ coming from mobile games.[3] Turkey’s market statistics were $464 million in 2015, while in 2016 it was $755 million and most of the revenue in 2016 was $332.5 million in mobile games, the rest was obtained from the computer and console genre.[1] Turkey grew 7.2% compared with the previous year, in online game revenue during 2016, Turkey ranked 16th in the world in both the mobile PC and console area.[1] Today in general & with all genres, Turkey stands at 18th globally. The global rank within all genres has not seen a change.[4][5]
Many big Turkish developer companies exist, such as Peak in the mobile games genre, Tale Worlds in the PC genre for many years. (e.g Mount & Blade.)[6]
E-Sport team found that the market for more than ten professionals from more than four thousand in Turkey are also licensed e-athletes.[2]Beşiktaş and traditional sports clubs also stepped in,[8] and other sports clubs, especially Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe, joined the e-Sports market.[9][10]
The Türkiye Digital Games Federation was established in 2011 and later superseded[11] by the e-Sports Federation of Turkey on April 24, 2018.[12][13]
Rating System
In Turkey, the most widely used video game content rating system PEGI (Pan European Gaming Information), does not have a legal basis that supports it officially but it was semi-officially introduced to the country in 2014-2015 and is used in both foreign and Turkish published video games all around the country, and in almost all cases,[14][15] though Turkey is not officially represented in the PEGI council. Other labels can be seen as well such as the German USK specially on second-hand items.[16][17]
In 2006, the Intellectual Property Registration and Registration Department made arrangements about a regulation "Computer Games", a new regulation for using & regarding marking content ratings system that was and has been implemented for film, television and video games in the Turkish market that are sold.[18] -Although the criteria used for marking are still officially and legally somewhat uncertain, but for video games is dominated by PEGI, this method is mostly applied to products sold physically, there is no control mechanism for video games acquired through digital distribution etc.[19]
With the Regulation on Internet Bulk Use Providers, which came into force in 2009, made the play of video games (or the screening of films) that include drug or stimulant habit, suicidal orientation, sexual abuse, obscenity, prostitution, violence, gambling etc. like-elements prohibited at public workplaces, though not applying to certain private workplaces.
Although the PEGI rating system is still not official and not legally supported, based on the government regulations and laws, games can be banned by the Ministry of the Interior.[20] So far no games have been banned, even if banned, did not have an effect at all and their bans were either forgotten, or lifted (unbanned). Though certain games were investigated as to whether they should be banned, or reported, there were no outcomes in those cases and the games were left untouched and playable.[21]
Games that cause adverse effects can be banned entirely if reported and investigated, but again none have been banned so far either.[22] Games can still be unavailable to be played due to the choice of the publishers specifically not making them available or playable in the Turkey region, but they are all still available physically and still playable if accessed physically. (Except online web-based game sites)
See video-game bans (Turkey) for more information.
^Foreign video games published for sale in Turkey are almost all published under European (And EU) licenses, including Turkish-published video games, and almost all are imported from Europe or the European Union, and thus having the PEGI labels on them though it is not officially supported by law. Those released under European licenses can be Turkish branches of the European publishers,(e.g Under a EU or other European based parent company.) -or just European publishers on their own which have the valid and certified (licensed) European licenses that are published with the sold items in Turkey, thus making it verified & certified. (And in case of warranty, all have it covered by a warranty as well.)The classification was semi-officially brought to Turkey in 2014 with a deal between private-owned TOGED (Game Developers Association of Turkey) and PEGI. Second-hand sold items in shops can have different labels, mostly such as the German USK.PEGI is also used while advertising video-games, and in the commercials.
^Özhan, Serdar (Nisan-Haziran 2011). "Dijital Oyunlarda Değerlendirme ve Sınıflandırma Sistemleri ve Türkiye Açısından Öneriler". Sosyal Politika Çalışmaları Dergisi. 25 (25), s. 21-33. ISSN2148-9424.
