Column by Ben Kvalo, Founder, CEO, Midwest Games
I’ve had the opportunity over my career to work with some of the biggest names in gaming and entertainment all around the globe, but my journey started in Wisconsin. I studied business administration and communications at UW-Green Bay. After graduating, I entered the video game industry, landing at 2K in its earlier days. That experience set the foundation for everything that followed, giving me the opportunity to help scale a global publisher and work internationally across cities like London, Paris, and Singapore.
From there, I went on to Blizzard, helping build esports initiatives around BlizzCon, and then to Netflix, where I was the first hire on the film marketing operations team. I helped lead campaigns for major titles and built global systems to manage marketing assets at scale. When Netflix expanded into gaming, I joined that effort too, helping launch the product and build out publishing operations.
After years of working across global entertainment and tech, I started thinking differently about where and how this work happens. The video game industry has long been concentrated in a handful of expensive cities, but the talent doesn’t just come from those places. That realization is what brought me back to Wisconsin to start Midwest Games.
Midwest Games is a video game publisher, helping developers bring their games to market through everything from production planning and quality assurance to localization and global marketing. But we’re also building something more flexible than the traditional model, offering publishing-as-a-service so developers, publishers, and entertainment companies can access the support they need without an all-or-nothing approach.
Wisconsin already has a strong and growing game development ecosystem, particularly in Madison, but what’s been missing is publishing. No region has built a sustainable games industry without it, and that gap is what we’re aiming to fill.
At the same time, coming back has opened my eyes to how much the startup ecosystem here has evolved. There are more resources, more collaboration, and more opportunities than many people expect, and when you tap into it, those connections turn into something real.
As we’ve started to expand globally, including into Europe, one idea has really stuck with me: there’s a Midwest everywhere. That same grounded, collaborative mindset exists across markets, and it’s shaping how we grow, building globally while keeping our center in Wisconsin.
Looking ahead, I see a real opportunity for the state to accelerate its role in the gaming industry, especially with the right incentives in place. The foundation is already here with strong talent pipelines, a growing development ecosystem, and a collaborative business community. With the right support, Wisconsin has the potential to attract studios from across the country and significantly scale its presence in a relatively short amount of time.
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