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33 articles

The Playground Productions logo beside a workbench of hand carved wooden toys and game design notebooks Studio stories
路 7 min read

How Playground Productions brought Backyard Sports back

Lindsay Barnett tracked down the rights to a dead 1990s game franchise, relaunched six titles, and has a new Backyard Baseball and an animated special.

Studio stories
The Latitude logo beside a desk of hand drawn fantasy maps, dice and tabletop miniatures Studio stories
路 7 min read

How Latitude turned AI Dungeon into a platform

AI Dungeon launched in 2019 and passed 8 million downloads. In April 2026 Latitude opened Voyage, a platform for building AI-run RPGs.

Studio stories
The ActFirst Games logo beside a carved stone relief of an armoured knight on a castle wall Studio stories
路 6 min read

How ActFirst Games went from a Thunderful exit to a new RPG

Kristian Andersson sold Early Morning Studio to Thunderful for SEK 80 million in 2021. In 2024 he started again in Stockholm with a new RPG.

Studio stories
A man carrying a cardboard box across a nearly empty bright office toward an open door, chairs stacked and a bare table behind him How claiming works
路 5 min read

What happens to your incentives if the business fails

Closing a Turkish company does not oblige you to repay support. A defective claim does, and that debt can be collected from the people who ran the company.

How claiming works
Two people at a long meeting table facing a wall screen carrying a video call with several remote colleagues For your kind of company
路 4 min read

Claiming when your team is spread across several countries

A distributed team does not disqualify you. The Decision supports staff in T眉rkiye and staff in overseas offices, but the 0% tax deduction asks where the service is provided from.

For your kind of company
A long curved service counter in a bright hall, staff at several separate positions serving people at the same time with no queue How claiming works
路 3 min read

Nobody is scoring your application against anyone else's

Decision 10962 is a rule, not a grant competition. There is no panel, no ranking and no acceptance rate. What decides the outcome is whether your documents match the conditions.

How claiming works
Two men talking across a small round table on a sunlit street terrace, one gesturing mid-sentence, a laptop and notebook between them How claiming works
路 4 min read

How to choose someone to run your incentive claims

You give an advisor authority inside a government system, and the liability for what they file stays with your company. Here is what to establish before you sign.

How claiming works
Two people at a desk going through printed papers together, a wall of ring binders on shelves behind them and rooftops through the window How claiming works
路 4 min read

The costs of claiming that nobody quotes you

The reimbursement is not the net figure. A claim carries certified accountant sign-off, notarisation and translation, and the support itself lands in the company's taxable income.

How claiming works
A man standing in a bright corridor beside a glass wall, looking in at an open-plan office where several people work at monitors Start here
路 4 min read

Can you stack T眉rkiye's incentives, or do you have to choose?

Cash support and tax relief sit in different systems and can run together. Inside the tax system you pick one regime, and inside the cash system each expense counts once.

Start here
A technology park campus in bright sunshine, several separate buildings across a landscaped site with people walking between them Start here
路 4 min read

Every Turkish incentive a foreign software company can use

The export incentive, teknopark, R&D centre status, T脺B陌TAK and KOSGEB, what each pays, who qualifies and how they stack.

Start here
The Levent business district skyline in Istanbul in full midday sun, glass office towers with the Bosphorus beyond Start here
路 8 min read

T眉rkiye's IT and gaming export incentives: the complete guide

What T眉rkiye pays software and game companies for selling abroad, who qualifies, what the money covers, and what a claim takes. Written by the people who file them.

Start here
A tea seller carrying a tray of tulip glasses across a bright office floor in Istanbul on an ordinary working morning Start here
路 3 min read

Is it hard to do business in T眉rkiye? The objections, answered

Inflation, the lira, banking, bureaucracy and language. The five things founders worry about before setting up in T眉rkiye, and how much each one actually costs.

Start here
Two people working at a single desk in a small room, seen through open doors, with a much larger studio floor either side of them Money back on marketing and UA
路 3 min read

How much does T眉rkiye actually pay back? Three studios, three answers

What the export incentive returns for an indie team, a growing studio and a portfolio company, with the caps applied and the arithmetic shown.

Money back on marketing and UA
Hands spreading euro, dollar and lira banknotes and coins across a cloth covered table by a window The 0% IT tax regime
路 5 min read

Does Turkish inflation cancel out the incentives?

You earn dollars, you spend dollars on ads and cloud, and the reimbursement is fixed to the exchange rate on the day you paid. Where the lira actually touches your numbers, and where it does not.

The 0% IT tax regime
Two people shaking hands across a long pale meeting table in a bright room The 0% IT tax regime
路 6 min read

What happens when someone buys your studio

Turkish studios get acquired. Two rules decide whether the sale is clean: the incentives survive a share sale but not a sale of the game itself, and share certificates decide whether the gain is taxed.

The 0% IT tax regime
Two people going through printed statements with a calculator at a desk by a tall window, Istanbul rooftops and the Bosphorus behind The 0% IT tax regime
路 4 min read

Every tax a foreign-owned Turkish software company actually pays

Corporate tax, VAT, dividend withholding, payroll and the export exemption, in one place, with what each one actually costs a software company.

The 0% IT tax regime
An empty desk chair at a fully set up workstation in a busy Istanbul office, colleagues working at the desks either side Start here
路 5 min read

Starting a company in T眉rkiye as a foreigner, start to finish

What a foreign founder actually does to open a Turkish company: the steps, the order, what it costs, how long it takes and what you can skip.

Start here
Two document folders on a white surface by a window, one closed and one open with its pages fanned Start here
路 6 min read

Limited or joint stock: which Turkish company to set up

Both qualify for the incentives identically, so the choice turns on three things: who can be chased for unpaid tax, what happens when you sell, and whether you plan to raise.

Start here
A hand resting on a stack of documents beside rubber stamps, an ink pad and a fountain pen Start here
路 3 min read

What it costs to set up and run a Turkish company

Registration, capital, notary and translation, accountancy, payroll filings. Real numbers for the entity itself, and how they compare with what a single quarter of claims brings back.

Start here
A bright modern office lobby with tall windows and people crossing the floor The 0% IT tax regime
路 3 min read

Getting your export income into T眉rkiye before the deadline

The 0% deduction has four conditions. Three are settled when you incorporate. This one has to be handled every year, and it is a calendar job rather than a hard one.

The 0% IT tax regime
Four colleagues working at wooden desks in a bright office, rooftops and a minaret through the windows Start here
路 6 min read

Does a Turkish company need real people in it?

Yes, and the requirement is lighter than founders expect. What the rules actually ask for, and why T眉rkiye pays half the salary of the people you put there.

Start here
A woman walking away down a long sunlit airport corridor pulling a suitcase Start here
路 6 min read

Do you have to live in T眉rkiye to own a company there?

Nothing in the incentive rules asks the owners to live here. What the company does need is someone who can act for it locally, and if that someone is you, a work permit.

Start here
Hands holding a blank payment card in front of an open laptop, Istanbul rooftops through the window How claiming works
路 3 min read

Pay from the company account: the payment trail rules

Support is paid to the company, so the money has to leave the company. What counts as proof of payment, why a founder's card breaks a claim, and how store payouts are evidenced.

How claiming works
A man on a phone call on a terrace above Istanbul rooftops The 0% IT tax regime
路 4 min read

Will my home country tax me anyway?

The question every founder asks before setting up in T眉rkiye. What controlled foreign company rules actually target, why a real operating business is treated differently from a shell, and the three questions to put to your adviser at home.

The 0% IT tax regime
A man working at a laptop by a window overlooking the Istanbul skyline Start here
路 4 min read

Why game studios and SaaS companies are setting up in T眉rkiye

The three things that make T眉rkiye unusual for a software company: 0% tax on exported IT revenue, 50 to 70% cash back on growth spend, and a two-week company setup. Who it fits, who it doesn't.

Start here
Two cardboard boxes on the floor of an empty room with sunlight coming through the window Start here
路 5 min read

Moving an existing studio to T眉rkiye: what has to move with it

You cannot pick a company up and put it in another country. What you can do is decide which parts move, and one of them decides whether store commissions are claimable at all.

Start here
A brown document envelope passed between two people across a table in a bright meeting room How claiming works
路 4 min read

Why claims get rejected, and the three-month cure period

Four things account for almost every rejected or delayed claim under Decision 10962. Three of them are fixable after the fact, and only one of them is fatal.

How claiming works
Two people at a sunlit table turning the pages of a thick tabbed document, Istanbul rooftops through the window behind Start here
路 6 min read

E-TURQUALITY: what it takes to get into the Branding Programme

Above the programme most companies use sits a second tier with a ceiling of 500 million TL a year. The revenue test, the trademark conditions, what the application costs and the one trade-off to weigh first.

Start here
A blank spiral bound calendar on a wooden table beside a cup of coffee and a small stack of papers How claiming works
路 5 min read

What claiming takes, month to month

Founders ask whether the paperwork will eat their week. It is a quarterly rhythm rather than a project, and the part that decides how much you collect is the calendar rather than the forms.

How claiming works
Neatly bundled pale network cabling in an open server rack, with a bright office behind it For your kind of company
路 5 min read

Blockchain and Web3 companies under T眉rkiye's export incentives

Blockchain is named in the first line of the eligibility article, alongside AI and cybersecurity. What a Web3 company can actually claim, and the one question to settle before you start.

For your kind of company
The stone facade of a nineteenth century public building with tall arched windows, people crossing the plaza in front Legislation and updates
路 5 min read

Will T眉rkiye's export incentive programme last?

A fair question before you set up a company on the strength of it. What the record shows, what protects claims you have already made, and what actually happens when the rules are rewritten.

Legislation and updates
A round clock on the wall of a bright open-plan office with people working at long white desks How claiming works
路 2 min read

The six-month filing window: the one deadline every studio must know

Most Decision 10962 claims need no pre-approval, but every payment has a six-month clock. How the window works, what starts it, and how to run a filing cadence that never misses it.

How claiming works
Two stacks of paperwork on a desk, one old and worn and one crisp and new, with a man working at a laptop behind Legislation and updates
路 4 min read

Decision 10962 vs 5447: what changed for IT companies in 2026

Turkey replaced its IT export incentive decree in February 2026. Here is what moved for software companies and game studios: caps, rates, target countries, the branding tracks and the transition rules.

Legislation and updates