Published: 12:40 AM, 09 June 2026
How Bangladesh Can Build Up A Real Gaming Industry
Debashish Sarker
One thing that helps many people cope with stress, pressure, and too much work is gaming. Gaming helped many people to pass their free time and bring joy. From the viewpoint on the street, we can see that many people, like vendors or those who are waiting for something, play mobile games, which helps them to enjoy while it lasts. Most people like to play online games, and some are serious about ranking games, and some enjoy story campaigns. Games like GTA, Need for Speed, and Assassin's Creed left a huge mark on them. These games are one of the main reasons why people in this country want to play more games in their leisure time. Even though most people in our country know games from outside our country, it is rare to see anybody play games that are made in our country. It is not surprising that the gaming industry is not as big as it is supposed to be. One of the main reasons is the lack of funding and proper support. Additionally, we can not think that there are no game developers or that nobody wants to make games, which is not true.
If we assume that a lack of domestic support is holding back local creators, that assumption is entirely accurate. Bangladesh possesses a mature and rapidly growing IT infrastructure, home to thousands of software firms and tech companies that regularly export enterprise web and mobile applications globally. However, this technical success has not crossed over into entertainment software, as game development companies. Consequently, for the country's aspiring creators, the ambition to design and publish games often feels like a dead end. I have seen many game developers who make games and publish them on indie gaming sites like Itch.io. They make games for their curiosity or to develop their skills. But it can not make a big game at the industry level.
I conducted an interview with an indie game developer who is a CSE student. His name is Boloy Chaki, and he made many games as he enjoyed developing them. From this interview, the main question I asked him was about the future of the gaming industry in this country. In response, he said, “The future of the gaming industry is not secure," Chaki stated when interviewed about the country’s technological outlook. "There are a lot of people who want to make games or work in a collaborative team, but the studio infrastructure simply doesn’t exist. This is the main reason students don't even consider game development as a viable career track." He also stated the financial issue that “Even if an independent team wants to take a risk and launch their own startup specifically to develop games, there is zero initial financial support or venture capital to kickstart the operation.”
So does it mean we did not succeed in any gaming development that reached a worldwide audience? This doesn't mean local creators have failed. Even though major support from big companies is still low, a few local studios have broken into the international market. They have proven that Bangladeshi talent can easily compete on a global level. For instance, if we look at the Zero Hour, which is published by the Bangladeshi independent studios Attrito and M7 Productions, we see a massive milestone. It made a huge splash on Steam, eventually hitting its full global release. What is interesting is that it just did not copy Western games; it features tactical maps modeled after real places in Bangladesh, complete with full Bangla voice acting. Also, mobile games like Heroes of 71 by Mindfisher Games were a huge success inside the country. Now, if we look at the eSports team like A1 eSports has played a massive role in putting Bangladesh on the global gaming radar. This team rapidly dominated domestic tournaments and made history by becoming the first-ever Bangladeshi team to qualify for the PUBG Mobile Global Championship (PMGC). This multi-front breakthrough completely redefines what it means for a local industry to "succeed." While a lack of institutional backing or multi-million dollar corporate funding once restricted local creators to smaller, isolated projects, the landscape has fundamentally shifted.
In Conclusion, we can not say it is impossible to bring success in the gaming world globally. With proper funding, skills, and technology, Bangladesh has the full potential to transform its passion into a high-yielding digital industry. The achievements of local pioneers prove that our talent is ready; now, it is simply a matter of building the infrastructure to let them shine.
Debashish Sarker belongs to
BRAC University, Dhaka.
