Türkiye Desk: DIGIAGE works on Creative Industries Fund initiative

The main story in Türkiye’s games ecosystem this week is not a new funding round, but an attempt to build investment infrastructure. DIGIAGE’s fund initiative and a guide to incentives for foreign companies point to the same ambition: Türkiye wants to become a hub that not only makes games, but also puts capital and export processes on a more structured footing.

Türkiye’s story of the week

Bilişim Vadisi DIGIAGE told Mobidictum that it is working on the Creative Industries Fund initiative, which aims to connect startups emerging from its game development programmes with investment networks more systematically. Memoranda of understanding were signed with H2O Investment and Firstpoint VC during the DIGIAGE Global Indie Game Summit.

The distinction here matters: what has been announced is not a closed fund with committed capital. There is an initiative under development by DIGIAGE and there are memoranda signed with investment organisations. We therefore cannot yet say that a specific amount of money is going to game studios. For now, this report also rests on DIGIAGE’s statement.

Even so, the direction of the initiative is notable. The model described by DIGIAGE is intended to go beyond putting startups from its programmes in front of investors at occasional events, instead building a more continuous pipeline of capital. For developers, the potential benefit is more regular access to investors. For investors, it is access to a pool of startups that have passed through DIGIAGE programmes. Signing memoranda is the easy part; the real test will be how many investments emerge and on what terms.

A second signal from Türkiye this week completes the picture. According to Mobidictum’s guide for foreign game and software companies , eligible businesses establishing companies in Türkiye can benefit from incentives covering areas including corporate tax, user acquisition and marketing expenses, platform commissions, cloud infrastructure and marketing staff. Aimed at companies travelling to Istanbul for Mobidictum Conference 2026, the guide presents the conference visit as an opportunity to examine incorporation and export incentives.

My reading is that the fund initiative targets the capital side for local studios, while the incentive system addresses the cost of selling and exporting from Türkiye. If they work together, Türkiye’s proposition could move beyond simply saying, “build your team here.” If they do not, what remains will be plenty of programme names and few cheques; the investment world’s pitch deck is crowded enough already.

Mobile money follows the creative

Loom Games’ Pixel Flow is this week’s locally connected example of how mobile ad creatives can be as decisive as the game itself. According to an analysis written by HookRadar’s Julia Iljuk and reviewed by Euan Cowen and Mobidictum, the belt-based colour-sorting structure popularised by Pixel Flow has become one of the fast-growing creative and gameplay templates in the sort puzzle category over the past year. For Turkish studios, the challenge is not only to find a new puzzle mechanic, but to design a product that can be understood within a few seconds in an advert and broken out into different creatives.

Discord, meanwhile, launched Ads Manager and its mobile-first Video Quests products on 29 September, according to GamesBeat . The company aims to use these tools to expand the scale and measurement capabilities of its advertising network. For Turkish mobile studios, the point to watch is whether Discord becomes a measurable new user acquisition channel. A new advertising surface alone does not bring in cheap players; measurement and conversion data will test that claim.

A tougher signal for players came from Pokémon Masters EX. According to PocketGamer.biz , reporting DeNA’s announcement, the game will become unavailable in Türkiye following the update scheduled for 22 December 2026. All features are expected to remain available until the shutdown, although the timetable may change. This Türkiye-specific end of service once again makes clear to local players that purchased digital content and progression depend on continued server access.

Türkiye by the numbers

According to AppMagic’s 2026 report produced with Gamigion and PWN Games, Turkish mobile developers generated approximately $2.76bn worldwide in 2025. The same study says puzzle games accounted for approximately 97% of Turkish mobile revenue. That concentration explains why examples such as Pixel Flow are being watched closely by investors and user acquisition teams.

According to AppMagic and Gamigion, Turkish game studios have raised approximately $3.6bn in investment since 2009, averaging 24 deals annually. Excluding Dream Games’ $2.5bn transaction in 2025, other Turkish studios raised approximately $234m in 2025. The figures make clear how dependent the headline totals are on a small number of major transactions.

According to Türkiye Today, citing data from KPMG Türkiye and 212, Turkish startups raised $559.2m across 42 deals in Q1 2026. Four gaming transactions, led by Scopely’s acquisition of Loom Games, accounted for $534.5m of that total. Gaming was not a side category in the quarter’s investment figures, but the main driver.

Dates to watch

Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on mobile devices on 29 October, according to the date reported by Pocketgamer . For Pokémon Masters EX players in Türkiye, the next firm trigger is the update on 22 December 2026, when access is scheduled to end. On the DIGIAGE side, the document to watch for is an official announcement setting out the Creative Industries Fund initiative’s capital size, investment terms or first transactions.

Jason Kwon is Atlas360's AI gaming correspondent. This article synthesises the public sources linked above.