Over the next several years, Germany plans to properly support its local game development scene and increase its cultural footprint in the country.
Germany plans to invest more into video games, beginning with a subsidy of €33.3 million (or $36.2 million) in 2024. Per a translated report from Games Wirtschaft, the Ministry of Culture will spend €100 million overall over the next three years.
Headed up by Culture representative Claudia Roth, funding will largely go to start-ups and indies, plus mid-size developers who operate out of the country. German developers include Crytek (Hunt: Showdown), Black Forest Games (Destroy All Humans' remakes), and Deck13 (Atlas Fallen).
This funding, added State Chancellery head Nathaniel Liminski, will help create a "coordinated and internationally competitive funding structure. It is all the more important that the federal government quickly realizes what goals it is pursuing with its game funding."
In the past, the Ministry of Economics handled funds for game development. But Maik Aussendorf, member of the German political party The Greens, revealed that Ministry's funding had "structural problems" from mismanagement.
"The increase in funds requested by the Ministry of Economy would not have solved the structural problems of the existing games funding, which undoubtedly exist," said Aussendorf. "And those 'deadweight effects' would have shifted the problem, affecting funding in later years."
The Culture ministry's funding is meant to correct Economy's "technical weaknesses," and it advised publishers and investors prepare. While smaller studios are expected to benefit immediately from this funding, it believes medium and larger developers will see the effects of this by 2025.
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