General Info
Sweden borders with Norway to the west and Finland to northeast, and is connected to Denmark in the south by the Öresund Bridge.
Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995, and is the third largest member of the organisation and has a total population of approximately 10.3 million.
The capital of Sweden is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country.
Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy form of government and a highly developed .
It is not known when and how the Kingdom of Sweden was formed.
In the 17th century it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire. Most of its conquered territories were lost in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Finland, then under Swedish rule was lost to the Russian Empire in 1809. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved in warfare was in 1814, when Sweden forced Norway into a union as a compensation for the loss of Finland. Since then, Sweden has been a relatively peaceful country with neutrality in wartimes, only officially participating in peacekeeping operations, even though it was caught multiple times throughout the cold war aiding NATO in spy operations against the Soviet Union.
Fun Facts
The first known commercial video game developed in Sweden was Space Action for the Commodore 64, released in 1983.
Sweden is the home of Djungelvrål and "Hockey powder" (also known as "demon candy from hell"). The pop sensation ABBA is also one of Sweden's biggest cultural exports to the world.
Rally sport is very popular in Sweden and many Rally games feature Swedish racetracks.
Also, Swedish teams and arenas and stadiums are often featured in NHL and FIFA games as ice hockey and soccer are the two most popular sports in the country. FIFA 09 offered Swedish play-by-play commentary in free DLC.
Swedish Video Game Developers
Thanks to it's early adoption of computers and the Internet, Sweden is home to many developers, many of them starting out in the Commodore 64 and Amiga demoscene.
Some of the most known Swedish video game developers are:
- DICE - Creators of the Battlefield series, Mirror's Edge, Star Wars Battlefront, Motorhead and Pinball fantasies (as Refraction Games: Codename: Eagle)
- Paradox Interactive - Responsible for the Europa Universalis games and its derivatives such as Hearts of Iron and Victoria
- Avalanche - Creators of the Just Cause series, Renegade Ops and currently working on RAGE 2
- Starbreeze Studios - Creators of Chronicles of Riddick, The Darkness, Syndicate and Payday 2 with Overkill Software (as O3 Games: The Outforce)
- SimBin Studios - Creators of driving sims like Race Pro and GTR
- Ubisoft Massive - Creators of Ground Control, World in Conflict, Tom Clancy's The Division and they also contribute to Ubisoft games
- Legendo - Dink Smallwood and various children's games
- Fatshark - Formed by ex GRIN employees. Creators of Lead and Gold, Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, Hamilton's Great Adventure, Krater, War of the Roses
- Frictional Games - Creators of the Penumbra series, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA
- Arrowhead Game Studio - Creators of Magicka and The Showdown Effect
- Might and Delight - Creators of Pid and Shelter and Shelter 2
- MindArk - Creators of Entropia Universe
- Mojang - Creators of Minecraft, Scrolls, Minecraft: Story Mode, Cobalt and Minecraft: Dungeons
- Machine Games - Formed by ex Starbreeze employees, bought by Zenimax. Creators of Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein II: The New Colussus
- Overkill Software - Creators of the Payday series, recently bought by Starbreeze Studios
- Bitsquid AB - Formed by ex Grin employees, creators of the Bitsquid Tech game engine, used by Fatshark
- Levande Böcker - Publisher of many historical edutainment titles and kids' games, such as the Mulle Meck franchise
- Dennaton - Creators of Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
- GHOST Games - Creators of the current generation of Need For Speed games like Rivals, Need For Speed and Payback
- Coffee Stain Studios - Creators of Sanctum, Sanctum 2, Goat Simulator and Deep Rock Galactic
- Coldwood Interactive - Creators of Unravel and Unravel Two
- Hazelight - Creators of A Way Out
- Image & Form Games - Creators of the SteamWorld series
- King - Creators of the Candy Crush Saga and similar titled games
- Stunlock Studios - Creators of Bloodline Champions
- Tarsier Studios - Recently known by developing and releasing Little Nightmares
- Zoink - Creators of Stick It To the Man!, Fe and Flipping Death
- Embark - Formed by ex DICE employees. Started in late 2018.
Defunct developers:
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