The tech sector has always thrived on ideas and innovation but in recent years, large parts of it have stuttered. For the third year in a row, investments across the industry fell in 2024 and European startups struggled to raise even half of the $101 billion raised when the sector peaked in 2021.
Analysts point to a range of reasons, from economic uncertainty to shifting consumer demands, but there’s a seemingly obvious challenge that’s often overlooked - and that’s the sector’s fixation with remote working. Across Europe, swathes of teams have shifted, and continue to shift, to hybrid and remote-first cultures, even though lockdowns are a distant memory. The promise is one of flexibility and efficiency, but the reality, especially in tech, is one of diminished creativity, fractured teamwork and stunted growth.
This is because the entire ecosystem – from deep tech to consumer apps – relies on ideas that spark in the moment, the kind of in-person spontaneity that identifies and solves problems on the fly. For a continent striving to lead in innovation, the loss of such a spark should ring alarm bells.
Nowhere is the impact of remote work on the tech sector more visible than in games – one of its most dynamic and creative sectors, and one that has become plagued by delays. In 2019, before the pandemic accelerated the shift to remote work, the games industry contributed €25.7 billion to the EU economy. This was a peak time when everyone in studios worked together; when ideas could spark in real-time, challenges were solved quickly, and young talent had invaluable opportunities to learn through osmosis.
