The initiative, held July 6 and 7 at the Nana Bianca Innovation Hub in Florence, attracted an unprecedented number of Italian video game developers, investors and publishers from around the world.

More than 500 professionals from 180 Italian development studios and 45 publishers and investors from 12 countries worldwide attended the event - including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Poland, Mexico , Japan, Germany and Italy. This international participation provided important networking and collaboration opportunities and created a stimulating environment for the growth and development of the Italian video game industry. During the two-day event, over 1,100 1:1 business meetings took place, offering Italian developers the opportunity to discuss potential collaborations with the international players present in Florence. These intensive meetings fostered the exchange of ideas and the creation of new connections and partnerships that will continue to drive the growth and innovation of the games industry in Italy in the near future.

Thalita Malagò, Director General of IIDEA, said,"We are very satisfied with the success of the fifth edition of First Playable, which has just ended in the beautiful city of Florence. This year we registered an unprecedented number of participants, a clear sign of the important consolidation phase that the video game production scene in our country is currently going through. This success is a symbol of the strength and vitality of the video game industry in Italy. IIDEA is particularly proud that First Playable has now become an event not to be missed not only by the local developer community, but also by international publishers and investors. The event offers a unique opportunity to exchange ideas, develop new partnerships and show the world the innovation and creativity that the video game industry is capable of expressing Made in Italy."

Stefania Ippoliti, Director of the Tuscany Film Commission, also underlines the importance of the collaboration with IIDEA:"The Tuscany Film Commission has always had a great interest in audiovisual innovation. We are a region full of tradition, but also full of curiosity about everything that can catch the interests of new generations, technology and internationalization. Video games have shown that they can create development, employment and interesting growth for our country. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that we can announce the excellent figures of this fifth edition of Florence."

The 2023 edition has been able to count on the support of various partners who have also given prestige and value to the event through exclusive content. These include Google and Unreal Engine, which are Diamond Partners of the initiative. Silver partners include Acer, AWS for Games, the law firm LCA, Maga Animation Studio and TikTok. Other partners include Broken Arms Games, Memorable Games, 34BigThings, Climax Studios and Women in Games Italia. The sustainability partner was Treebu, a non-profit company and innovative start-up that supported First Playable in creating a real forest to partially offset the emissions of this edition of the event.

This year, for the first time, the Ministry of Culture (MiC) was also present at the event. It opened the works of First Playable 2023 with a workshop organized by the General Directorate of Cinema and Audiovisual, about tax credits and how much this measure has made it more interesting and convenient for foreign suppliers to invest in national video game productions.

Finally, there was the wonderful award ceremony of the Italian Video Games Awards 2023, hosted by Irish game presenter, critic and streamer Aoife Wilson and broadcast live from the Nana Bianca Auditorium on July 6. During the evening, the five winners of the prestigious awards were announced and honored, celebrating Italian talent in the video game industry. The evening ended with the atmospheric Italian Video Game Awards Party.