Jonathan Hull

There is a lot of talk about #AI right now. For Music and Art Schools, the more important question is what is actually worth using and how to use it. That is why we are going live with Magnus Elgaard Petersen, AI Consultant and Founder of 2ai. Together, we will talk about: - what Music and Art School leaders should focus on - where generative AI can support administration, teaching and creative work - how to best utilise its potential ▶️ Join us live on 𝟮𝟯𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝗮𝘁 𝟭𝟭:𝟬𝟬 𝗖𝗘𝗧 or watch the recording afterwards. Link in the comments. #AI #GenerativeAI #MusicandArtEducation #SpeedAdmin

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Our robot just hit the streets. Next week at UNITY Helsinki. Monday. Wednesday. Friday. Real scenarios. Real guests. Real problems to solve. Hotel lobbies don’t care about your PowerPoint. Breakfast areas won’t forgive clunky interactions. Co-working spaces demand seamless integration. Theory meets reality. The gap between “it works in testing” and “guests actually use it” is where innovation either thrives or dies. Every confused guest teaches us something. Every smooth interaction proves a point. Every failure? Pure gold. Meanwhile, something else happened: Our AI chatbot research just landed in Ikkunapaikka—the industry’s top publication. Check it out! 😎 ——— The future of hospitality isn’t coming. It’s walking around UNITY Helsinki next week. Want to see tomorrow, today? Come say hi to our robot (& robot master Aarni Tuomi) 👋🏻 Test our Kuiskaajabotti chatbot! (www.kuiskaajabotti.fi) Help us bridge the gap between possible and practical. Great time to be alive indeed. ——— What’s your take? Link to our Ikkunapaikka article in comments.

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🚀 Cursor magic in action. Inspired by a webinar on using Cursor AI for personal and work projects by Seva Ustinov, I thought, that I definitely need this too. And now Cursor feels like it might become my new favorite assistant for both work and personal tasks. I decided to start with the hardest project, the one that’s most difficult to manage: my son’s kindergarten. 😅 The flow of emails from the teacher and the director is endless, and there are usually no reminders. I kept checking the dates of field trips, the days when sports clothes are needed, putting them in my calendar, and still sometimes missing important things. I decided to go straight for full automation - if I’m starting, I want to start the RIGHT way. In the Cursor chat, I explained what problem I wanted to solve and what result I wanted to get. And as someone who doesn’t write code and is absolutely not technical, in just an hour and a half I set up my Kindergarten workspace: 📨 every two hours it checks emails from the kindergarten; 📂 new emails are automatically saved in a separate file; ✅ Cursor updates my to-do list (inside the Kindergarten folder) based on those emails. Now I just open the to-do list and see exactly what I need to do and what’s already done. 🤩 The benefits that immediately stood out to me: • Automation first - emails turn into tasks without me touching them; • The context is always right there - no need to search or repeat the story; • Everything is organized by projects - I can analyze them as a whole or work with each one separately; • I can ask Cursor to gather information from several projects at once; • I just write what I want done, and Cursor either writes the scripts and runs them or gives me a simple step-by-step plan “for dummies”. Next step: organize everything I can in Cursor: personal projects (learning, health, travel, important tasks, etc.) and work processes. I want to see how far I can go in clearing my head and boosting my efficiency even further. 🚀

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Off the back of Slush this week came the release of the annual State of European tech report which is full of really interesting data. Amongst other positive trends, the report highlights European investments in tech being on the rise again and continuous growth in the amount of new companies started despite the very difficult environment, and very many successes from European tech companies on the global stage. A recommended read if you're interested in the broader tech environment ! https://lnkd.in/gCsf3QNY

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We spoke with Rovio Entertainment chief sustainability officer Heini Kaihu about the state of Finland's games industry, immigration laws in the country, and how Finnish games companies can meet ambitious targets. https://lnkd.in/ej_9_RBX

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Excited to share that Tencent Europe is partnering with Futuregames as a Growth Partner to help nurture the next generation of video game developers across Sweden and Poland. Through this collaboration, Tencent team will support Futuregames’ 2026 Game Project programme by providing mentorship, setting creative themes and helping students turn promising ideas into scalable projects. Thank you for joining us in efforts to strengthen the industry and find sustainable ways to enable young talents to enter it. Special thanks to Maximilian Bock, Emma Richards and Henrietta Mackenzie for making this happen! 🙌🏻🥳🚀 #gamedevindustry #videogames #gamedeveducation #tencent #futuregames

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Kajaani Game Catalyst accelerator program on Yle news! (Finnish) Exciting opportunity for game entrepreneurs in Finland’s Kainuu region. The next cohort for the Kajaanin Game Catalyst growth programme is now open for applications, with the first phase, GameLab, starting in January 2026. The three-stage programme supports new teams turning ideas into game studios: • GameLab – idea development • Business Incubator – business build-out • Accelerator – scaling and funding readiness Key details: • Open to students, freelancers, job-seekers, employees and entrepreneurs, even without an existing company or Y-ID. • Preference given to teams already formed and with a shared game idea. • The company must be based in Kainuu. • Previous intake received over 60 applications, five teams were selected, and several have already secured private seed investment. • Application deadline: 23 November 2025. Kainuu is building a strong and growing game industry ecosystem. If you are ready to turn your idea into a studio, this is a solid platform to start from. #GameDevelopment #Startup #GamingIndustry #Kainuu #GrowthProgramme #GameCityKajaani

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Finnish AI news service Freepress raises €1M in funding – shares revenue with media outlets https://lnkd.in/d_SPBddg @freepress #Freepress #AINews #StartupFunding #SeedFunding #MediaPartnerships #QualityJournalism #RevenueSharing #AIPlatform #GlobalExpansion #FinnishTech #AIInnovation #DigitalNews #MediaTech #InternationalGrowth #NewsStartup

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Once again, Finnish Games Week 🇫🇮  (IGDA leadership day, PC Connects Helsinki,  W love Games and Neogames mini legal summit) provided super interesting insights for the state of the Finnish game industry. Although many game developers were still struggling, there were more and more positive signals. It looks like times might be slowly turning for the better: investment rounds and publishing deals are again being closed, and new start-ups are operating in a stealth mode. These difficult years have been times that have truly made visible the unique strengths of the Finnish game industry: 1️⃣ Finland has both great tech talent and tech-oriented public support. For the forefront Finnish game developers, AI is not a threat, but a great opportunity. For them, the AI revolution is not just about output; it's also about using AI to optimise and scale their game development process. And most importantly, Finland has a Business Finland R&D framework enabling Finnish companies to explore these opportunities.  2️⃣ Finns have a great growth-oriented entrepreneurial mindset. Seasoned industry veterans use their tech expertise to build something truly scalable and/or unique and globally competitive. Many are building AI game tech, PC games with a tech twist, or truly cross-platform game experiences.  3️⃣ Like for the rest of Europe, compared to the US, the salaries are lower, giving more time for start-ups to succeed. As one lawyer put it at the legal summit. Trying to stop Finnish game devs from using AI tools is hopeless. If you try, you just have a massive shadow tech problem in your hands. Instead, just find processes and practices enabling their use in a sustainable manner. Some examples of the cool stuff Finns are building right now in the comments.

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We have had the good fortune at ÄÄRI to work with this Finnish hidden gem of a company, Neural DSP for the past few years supporting them in their product launches. The last launch of the Quadcortex Mini sold out a years worth of production on the first day of the launch. They are the global market leader in their category. If you have never heard of them, check them out. the launch film is linked in the Ääri post.

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AI will reshape journalism. The real question is how we choose to use it. At Schibsted, we believe technology should strengthen journalism — not weaken it. That’s why we are making our AI tool Videofy available as open source. It helps turn written articles into video in minutes, while keeping editorial control at the core. By sharing the technology, we want to contribute to a more open and collaborative approach to AI in the media industry — and make it easier for more newsrooms to experiment and innovate. Great work by Juan Carlos Lopez Calvet and the teams involved in developing Videofy. You can read more here👇

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How can small and medium businesses from all sectors benefit from extended reality? Check out some tips, use cases, apps and easy entry guidelines in this article 🙌

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Last week I participated in the Get Funded! event organized by Neogames Finland ry. It was a good event that gave me several new insights on how to move forward with my company. Here are some notes I took. Most of them are not directly about funding. - In Finland, most funding is meant for leverage. There aren’t many options for the first boost, which is a shame because there are plenty of good ideas with business potential. It was also said that it’s often better to start without external funding. For me, this is the hard part, since it’s always a balance between time, money, and resources, all of which are limited at the moment. - The first step in an AI strategy is to understand how AI won’t make you irrelevant. After that, think about how to work with it in different ways. There’s no point in fighting against it. - There are many opinions about game publishers and whether they are actually useful. In this event, it was highlighted that they can be very valuable when taking the first steps. I’ve also seen the same pattern in the music industry, where managers and labels can be great in the early years, and later you can choose your own direction. - “It’s all about the team” was mentioned from the investor’s point of view. This wasn’t new, since Thierry Baujard said the same in the AV Growth program, but it’s always good to hear it confirmed. - My company’s transmedia story world approach got some support when it was said that it’s always better to work with multiple concepts. Overall, the event reminded me how important it is to stay flexible, build strong networks, and keep developing step by step. It looks like it just needs more sisu to push things forward 🔥 #gamedevelopment #indiegames #gameindustry #funding

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D&D Beyond has officially cancelled their Sigil VTT, and they are trying to let the audience down gently with some benefits. It was the right decision to stop work on Sigil, but it really was doomed from its inception. The idea was an Unreal-engine powered set of tools for DMs to create gorgeous 3D environments for players. Which they did; but there were two essential problems. The first was that the hardware requirements were very steep (a high-end Nvidia graphic card and powerful PC were still chugging just trying to rotate the view); this could possibly have been ameliorated with further development, but it would always have severely limited the size of the audience. The second problem was the basic concept; building detailed 3D environments is hard work, no matter how good the tools are, and takes a lot of time. How many DMs have the time and skill to put into that? Vanishingly few. Yes, the company could create standard scenes, but then it's not YOUR scene, and you lose one of the most powerful qualities in a TTRPG: it's about YOUR story, not someone else's character or world or actions. So it's the right thing to let Sigil go. I hope future projects from WotC have more insight into what players need and want before the spend a lot of time and money chasing something that will never be a good revenue source. https://lnkd.in/gjsfxAim

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Veo3: Game-Changer for Mobile Gaming UA? Google’s new AI video tool, Veo3, could reshape how mobile game ads are made offering speed, scale, and personalization like never before. Imagine producing endless variations of gameplay trailers in seconds. But is it ready for prime time? At Artstash, we’ve explored Veo3’s potential and limitations: from rapid iteration and localization to challenges like creative control, brand consistency, and emotional nuance. It’s not perfect, but it’s a promising step toward faster, smarter UA creative. Check out this video we put together 'This video is intended for illustrative purposes only. It represents a conceptual example.' Read full article https://lnkd.in/gZ29YJFg #MobileGaming #UserAcquisition #GameMarketing #Veo3 #PerformanceCreative #CreativeStrategy

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This week’s news from the Finnish Game Industry spans policy debates, industry events and strong studio momentum. Globally; 💸 Google plans to cut its Play Store commission from 30% to a new service fee model of 20% for in-app purchases and 10% for recurring subscriptions starting in 2026. 🎮 Sony signals a return toward console exclusivity. Closer to home: 🏙️Ecosystem support as the development of Oulu’s game industry sparked debate in Kaleva, with responses highlighting both current expertise and future potential. The event calendar remains active with more events coming; 🏟️ Over 7 Hills IT and games conference coming to Turku on 5 May 🎢 Bit1 student game finale at Helsinki XR Center on 2 April. Talking about students; the Game Studies Thesis Competition 2026 approaches its March deadline. On the studio front: 🤝Arizona State University and Bitmagic pioneer AI-assisted game development education 🧚Remedy Entertainment Plc continues its ambitious push with Control Resonant 🧚‍♂️ Housemarque reveals new gameplay from Saros and begins hiring for its next project 🕹️Antti Tiihonen unveils a new trailer for Reconfigure. 😍10tons launches Dysplaced into Steam Early Access. Check all the news from our site and have a great weekend! https://lnkd.in/d4FWwXC2

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This week’s news from the Finnish Game Industry starts with investment and strong industry milestones. 💵Quicksave Interactive has secured new funding from HyperScope Ventures to develop Playables.ai, a platform enabling playable ads created through prompts. 💰Clash Royale celebrates its 10th anniversary and $4.9bn in player spending, with Supercell explaining the design changes behind the game’s recent resurgence. 📟 Remedy Entertainment Plc’s Control Resonant was showcased at GDC 2026 by NVIDIA, demonstrating RTX features, DLSS 4.5 and path tracing technology. 🖥️ Browser gaming is also gaining momentum as Angry Birds Friends launches as a web browser title and Fingersoft discusses the technical choices behind the web version of Hill Climb Racing Lite. 😍 New Finnish game releases continue as THYSIASTERY by DIRGA Games and Echoes of Myth by Finnish solo developer Jukka Tykkyläinen launches on Steam, and Huippee Heroes releases its new mobile title Masterions on Google Play. 🏟️Supercell’s Games First event is on 4 June. Applications are open until 19 March. 🏫The 2026 joint application period to higher education has started (ends on 24 March at 3pm).  Check Neogames site regarding Game Education in Finland and Suomi Game Hub application guide. ⚖️ Regulation; PEGI will expand its classification criteria from June 2026 to better address online interaction risks in games. Check all the news from our site and enjoy the coming weekend! https://lnkd.in/dia6spDH

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So much has happened in so little time and lots of positive and sentimental thoughts. We organised a mini-conference to give back to local game development community in our home town in cooperation with Business Oulu and IGDA Finland Oulu hub. And it was a smashing success. 92/100 when the average using the same portal for feedback average at 82/100 (and the only neutral feedback dropping the average also left a note: "I could not arrive due sudden schedule change on my side."). There, and in the Investor Event last week, we've opened 5 new talks with investors helping boost our growth. So after Labour Day it feels great to go towards a new work week. Future has been in my mind beyond my own company as I also participated in discussions of the future of Finnish game industry in Helsinki for two days. Those two events brought also sadness to my mind as my home town used to have answers to what seems to be most lacking in Finland at the moment. The award-winning incubator model that run in Oulu 2012-2020 did exactly what were seen as biggest shortages by Finnish Game Educators Meetup and Neogames workshop for boosting Finnish game industry. Now companies operating here need to have plans how to grow elsewhere, because Oulu went from having a great answer for future growth and a incubator model that was selected as best in the world back in 2017, to having no solutions for growth.

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