According to the German Games Industry Association (game), the German Bundestag has approved an increase of €20m to the country’s gaming fund. In dollars, this brings the overall funding up to around $72m. The funding is awarded in order to support game development and push the country’s interactive entertainment industry forward. The initiative was first announced back in 2019 and was notified by the EU in 2020.
Managing Director of game, Felix Malk, stated on the announcement “The provision of this additional games funding sends a powerful signal. It will enable Germany to continue its pursuit of becoming one of the world’s top locations for game development. With these steps, the German Bundestag and the federal government are renewing their promise to make Germany a leading market for games on the international stage.”
EU support as a whole
The announcement may come in part due to a recently passed EU resolution to encourage the creation of an overall strategy for supporting the video game industry. Europe boasts many famous studios such as Ubisoft and CD Projekt Red which mainly work in console and PC, but also comprises a large number of mobile game studios, such as Supercell, Miniclip Netherlands and Jagex. All of these should end up benefiting from said resolution, and the Bundestag’s decision is an early sign that the resolution is being taken to heart by EU governments.
The EU resolution noted the importance of gaming to both the economy and culture of Europe. Part of the German government’s game funding is a number of requirements, such as the passing of a cultural test to encourage representation of EU culture and the inclusion of accessibility options for players in order to receive funding.
The German game industry also saw a big boost in 2021 according to game with the number of companies growing by around 20%. The funding for studios and developers will hopefully smooth over what many are predicting will be an incoming market correction, as gaming in general saw a record growth during the pandemic years.
