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Gamescom: Habeck confirms no to extra funding
Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is standing in front of the DIVE+ environmental simulator at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences during a tour of the Gamescom video game fair. photo
© Henning Kaiser/dpa
Whether apocalyptic survival battles, fantasy role-playing games or strategy adventures: Gamescom’s virtual range is large and colorful. The industry’s creativity also impressed the Economics Minister.
On the first public day of the world’s largest computer games fair Gamescom tens of thousands of fans streamed into the Cologne exhibition halls on Thursday. Among them were many colorfully dressed cosplayers who appeared as fairies, space warriors or monsters and thus impersonated characters from their favorite games. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens), on the other hand, appeared as a suit wearer. During a tour of the trade fair, he spoke to local developers. The trade fair for trade visitors began on Wednesday.
The global industry for computer and video games has been growing for years, and the Corona years gave it an additional boost. However, local developers and producers play a secondary role, only four percent of sales with games and hardware in Germany end up in their coffers. In order to increase this proportion, there is a relatively young federal funding program. This year it was 70 million euros, in 2024 it should be 48.7 million euros according to the proposal of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Worried about stunted growth
From the point of view of the industry association Game, this is far too little – it warns that growth will be slowed down and that German companies with their 12,000 employees could fall behind in global competition. 125 million euros are needed to cover the demand.
However, Habeck rejected the demand for an increase. Although he would like to provide more money, he cannot do so, the minister said. “Everyone has to save, the finance minister is forcing everyone, now everywhere […] spend less money.” He suggested examining the use of other forms of help, such as state guarantees for crowdfunding or the placement of venture capital investors.
The demand for games funding is so great that this year’s funding pot was already empty in May. The ministry then imposed an application freeze. Since the 48.7 million euros for 2024 will probably only be sufficient to cover claims for funding that has already been approved, no new applications will be possible until the beginning of 2025.
During the tour of the fair, Habeck presented funding notifications to companies that had submitted their applications early enough. Among them was the “Anno 1800” developer Ubisoft, who gets 5.6 million euros.
Habeck’s stance on federal funding was a disappointment for the German games industry. But it was positive for the companies that he wants to campaign for tax breaks. However, the Habecks department is not responsible for this, but Christian Lindner’s (FDP) Federal Ministry of Finance.
The industry association Game did not want to give up hope for more funding just yet. It has become clear that an increase to 125 million euros from 2024 “will depend on the support of the entire traffic light coalition in the government and in the German Bundestag,” said association director Felix Falk. In autumn, the Bundestag will discuss the budget – the people’s representative body could increase the funding budget. However, representatives of the traffic light factions have so far only expressed reservations about this.