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German government reveals major funding programme for local games industry, pays for up to 50% of dev costs

Bushido

Bushido

Senior Game Designer
Verified
Feb 6, 2018
1,850
These are HUGE news for the German games industry, enables completely new business cases and will hopefully boost new projects, studios/subsidiaries and the industry here as a whole. Really cool.

Non-repayable government grants will help fund a range of projects, from prototypes to €40m+ AAA games

The German government has revealed a major funding programme for the national games industry, which will allow companies to claim back as much as 50% of development costs.

To qualify, a company must be headquartered or have registered business premises in Germany.

The fund can be used for a variety of projects, including prototypes, co-productions and ports.
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More info in the link: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...ent-support-for-up-to-50-percent-of-dev-costs
 
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Käebi

Member
Mar 12, 2019
151
Yeah, I got the newsletter today. Let's see how this works out. The federal funding program is already running for a year, but they've got major problems with distribution.
 
Tyaren

Tyaren

Character Artist
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
24,801
Absolutely needed. For such a big, rich and modern country Germany looks rather small in game development.
 
EagleClaw

EagleClaw

Member
Dec 31, 2018
10,704
Ubisoft and EA will happily take that money for their support studios that are in germany.

EDIT:
I'm wrong.
 
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Muffin

Muffin

Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,343
This is great for indies here, but I imagine most of this money is going to go to Ubi and the like, isnt it?
 
Mentalist

Mentalist

Member
Mar 14, 2019
18,041
GamingCJ said:
lol unbelievable ideed

Give all the money to Piranha Bytes!
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They were acquired by THQN last year.

And Deck13 was bought by Focus this year.

I can't think of any independent mid-sized studios in Germany right now, tbh. THQN swooped up JoWood's studios, and they've got a lot of that market cornered (to my continuing surprise and delight SpellForce series is still alive, and it's getting a second expansion).

Still, more money into games is always good.
 
Catsygreen

Catsygreen

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,362
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EliR

EliR

Banned
Jan 22, 2020
632
Let's see which big developers will start hedge companies in Germany just to get free big bucks.
 
dragn

dragn

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt-account
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
881
star citizen to move completly to germany? :<
 
GamingCJ

GamingCJ

Member
Apr 14, 2019
1,907
Mentalist said:
They were acquired by THQN last year.

And Deck13 was bought by Focus this year.

I can't think of any independent mid-sized studios in Germany right now, tbh. THQN swooped up JoWood's studios, and they've got a lot of that market cornered (to my continuing surprise and delight SpellForce series is still alive, and it's getting a second expansion).

Still, more money into games is always good.
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Oh damn, you are right.
 
Lausebub

Lausebub

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,152
Will be interesting to see how strict they are when it comes to cultural importance.
Atleast it can only get better from here on out, but it will probably take a few more years, since what I red in a few other articles, developers are still not happy, since the the people in the ministry don't really know how development works and there is to much bureaucracy.
 
plow

plow

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,650
YIIIIIIIIS GIVE ME SOME ELEX 2 PIRANHA BITS

Sadly it's far too late for that game, but at least Elex 3 ( or Gothic 4 :)))))))))))))))))) ) might have a higher Budget.




tenor.gif
 
EagleClaw

EagleClaw

Member
Dec 31, 2018
10,704
The game has to represent the european, or german, culture.
Project leads have to live in germany, and have to pay german tax.
The team has to include german university graduates.

Funding statute (german)

Because of the culture representation that will be no big thing.
 
plow

plow

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,650
Mentalist said:
They were acquired by THQN last year.

And Deck13 was bought by Focus this year.

I can't think of any independent mid-sized studios in Germany right now, tbh. THQN swooped up JoWood's studios, and they've got a lot of that market cornered (to my continuing surprise and delight SpellForce series is still alive, and it's getting a second expansion).

Still, more money into games is always good.
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There is a lot of them, but most of them do Mobile or Browser Games like Inno-Games and Goodgame.
 
OP
OP
Bushido

Bushido

Senior Game Designer
Verified
Feb 6, 2018
1,850
Mentalist said:
They were acquired by THQN last year.

And Deck13 was bought by Focus this year.

I can't think of any independent mid-sized studios in Germany right now, tbh. THQN swooped up JoWood's studios, and they've got a lot of that market cornered (to my continuing surprise and delight SpellForce series is still alive, and it's getting a second expansion).
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Doesn't change anything, they are still eligible to submit an application (which doesn't automatically mean that they'd receive a grant).

Still, there are a couple of mid- and small sized independent studios I can think of:
  • Shin'en Multimedia (The Touryst/Fast RMX)
  • Mimimi Productions (Desperados 3/Shadow Tactics)
  • Rockfish Games (Everspace 1&2)
  • Deck 13 (The Surge 1&2/Lords of the Fallen)
  • Radical Fish Games (CrossCode)
  • King Art Games (Iron Harvest/Book of Unwritten Tales)
  • Jo-Mei Games (Sea of Solitude)
  • Ion Lands (Cloudpunk)
  • Daedalic Entertainment (The Whispered World/Deponia)
  • Yager (Spec Ops: The Line/The Cycle)
  • Limbic Entertainment (Tropico 6)
  • Keen Games (Portal Knights)
 
Devil

Devil

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,669
Well, fucking finally. Germany is massively lagging behind in terms of console/pc games compared to France, Sweden, Poland etc. As a German dev you basically only had some bigger studios doing browser games as far as I know.
 
EagleClaw

EagleClaw

Member
Dec 31, 2018
10,704
hobblygobbly said:
as a german i don't like international big companies taking advantage of this

this should be solely for homegrown industry businesses, new and old.
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It will be just for games that represent the german or european culture.
All project leads have to life in germany and the team must be of german university graduates.

It is for small german developers, but sadly also only for games like Landwirtschafts Simulator.
 
Lausebub

Lausebub

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,152
EagleClaw said:
It will be just for games that represent the german or european culture.
All project leads have to life in germany and the team must be of german university graduates.

It is for small german developers, but sadly also only for games like Landwirtschafts Simulator.
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If there wasn't a Brexit, a lot of games would pass this test, if they were developed in Germany.

Der kulturelle Kontext und Inhalt kann in Ausnahmefällen auch ein nicht europäischer sein, wenn er sehr klar umrissen und besonders kreativ oder innovativ ausgestaltet ist und unter II. und III. besonders viele Kriterien erfüllt sind.
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Rough translation for non Germans: The cultural context can, in exceptions be non European, if it is especially creative or innovative if II. and III. (the leads and half the team work in Germany). So as long as the team is not just a support studio an not just working on military shooter the game, it will hopefully apply to most games.
 
EagleClaw

EagleClaw

Member
Dec 31, 2018
10,704
Lausebub said:
If there wasn't a Brexit, a lot of games would pass this test, if they were developed in Germany.
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I'm sure even after Brexit britains culture will be still european.


Lausebub said:
Rough translation for non Germans: The cultural context can, in exceptions be non European, if it is especially creative or innovative if II. and III. (the leads and half the team work in Germany). So as long as the team is not just a support studio an not just working on military shooter the game, it will hopefully apply to most games.
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Yeah, there is the possibility, but they have to deliver more on the points II and III, and that will be decided by some state official.
I think for a lot of developers, that really wanna make good selling games, this is not really interesting.

I understand that the state doesn't want to "pay" for some action or horror games, but to grow the industry you have to produce things that sell well.
 
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