International Factfile 2015: Austria

Indie retail continues to flourish in Austria, as the country’s hypermarkets fail to make a significant dent in the games retail space.

Additionally, the two largest grocery retailers in the country – Rewe International and Spar sterreichische Warenhandels – both have a minimal games offering, allowing specialist and independent games outlets to plug the gap.

Retail research firm EHL observes that over the last decade, retail space has grown by 20 per cent in Austria’s capital city Vienna.

However, the Vienna Economic Chamber states that overall consumer purchasing has fallen 0.6 per cent during the same period.

This may have led to many consumers turning to cheaper offerings online.

The European Commission’s latest DESI report found that online retail appears to be more popular in Austria than its neighbours, with 65 per cent of consumers shopping using the internet in 2014 – two per cent more than the EU average. This is down from the 66 per cent of Austrian consumers who did so in 2013.

Despite the familiarity of Austrian consumers with the internet, gamers aren’t as enthusiastic about going online.

The DESI report continues that Austrians are less likely to use the internet to play games, music and videos than their EU counterparts.

42 per cent of regular internet users aged between 16 and 74 used the internet for such purposes during 2014, which was slightly below the EU average of 49 per cent.

Population: 8,579,747

Capital City: Vienna

Currency: Euro

GDP (Per Capita): $44,475

KEY RETAILERS

MediaMarkt, GameStop, Saturn, Video Game Store, Videolife, Muller, Videolife, Videogames Pilko

TOP DISTRIBUTORS

Koch Media, Play Art, Sony DADC, Stadlbauer, Xendex

TOP DEVELOPERS

REDOX Game Labs, Sproing, BongFish, DonkeyCat, Broken Rules, Clockstone Studios, Egon.CX, Mi’pu’mi Games, Still Alive Studios

PUBLISHERS IN THE REGION

Nordic Games, Koch Media/Deep Silver, Microsoft, Xendex