What about the illegal leg of the illegal betting business, virtual games, and the unemployed youth who build a world with games and the youth who have no enthusiasm for work?
In 2024, Turkey's gaming industry saw significant growth. Industry revenue reached $695 million, and the target is to reach $750 million by the end of 2025.
Bu artışta yerli bilgisayar (PC) ve konsol oyunlarına yönelik ilginin yükselmesi önemli bir rol oynuyor: 2024’te Türk yapımı PC ve konsol oyunlarının sayısında %133 artış yaşandı.
In addition, independent studios and small teams can reduce their costs by developing games using AI-powered tools.
It is a massive market, both as a source of revenue and with a player base of around 20 million. .
Before the computer age, young people used to hang out on the streets. They used to spend time in pool halls and coffee shops, but now they’re in virtual gaming rooms and sitting at their PCs. These are models of people who, through increasingly solitary gaming, either fail to earn a living or become unemployed and dependent on others. .
I want to get to the point by mentioning two countries. One is Belarus; although it is known primarily for its women, gambling, and entertainment, it has been one of the leading countries in the world in recent years for training and exporting software developers. The situation is the same for the Baltic countries, where a large number of young people are being trained in the fields of information technology and software development. .
In Turkey, too, initiatives like Teknofast are encouraging young people in this area, but there is a generation of young people who, thanks to government incentives, are spending their time at home in front of computers creating virtual worlds through games, and as a result, are becoming unemployed. Aren’t young people who are curious and talented in IT and software—those who could become software developers or cybersecurity experts—being left behind?
If new jobs were created, wouldn’t that help curb unemployment and generate revenue for the country, especially as software developer employment is on the rise worldwide?
In the digital age, wouldn’t training software developers through government-sponsored programs—which recoup their costs once the graduates start working—not only prevent new unemployment but also reduce the overall unemployment rate?
Shouldn’t we be turning to new methods and fields of work that keep pace with the times? With a population of 20 million people already wasting time in front of their computers, wouldn’t it make sense to turn that into added value?