© Nintendo Products Donkey Kong is Coming, Mario is Driving Away The smaller installed base of the Switch 2 at launch leads to a curious picture in the charts. Apparently, so many console buyers purchased Mario Kart World on Day One that the title dropped out of the top 20. It was replaced by Donkey Kong. The curious change in the By Stephan Steininger • 2 min read
Torsten Oppermann (1SP) and Angelos Senis (Fijak; from left) © 1SP Business 1SP Agency Continues to Grow and Acquires Fijak 1SP Agency is expanding: The agency group has acquired Fijak, a full-service agency specialising in design, production, logistics and retail activation. The acquisition primarily strengthens 1SP's sales promotion and retail marketing. This is already the second acquisition this year to strengthen the Retail Marketing division: the Hamburg-based agency By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
© Pexels/Johannes Plenio/Christian Richert/Hert Niks Business German Cities Miss Out on the Top 10 European Gaming Hubs For the first time, Europe's gaming umbrella organisations have published a list of the top 20 game development locations in their report. While the UK has five cities in the top 10, German cities only appear from eleventh place onwards. Munich is not in the top 20, nor By Stephan Steininger • 2 min read
© Manticore Products Frédéric Descamps: "Players Do Not Care About Industry Monikers" At the end of September, Manticore will launch its new game Out of Time. An unusual but logical step for the creators of the Core platform, as Manticore co-founder and CEO Frédéric Descamps reveals in an interview. For many years, Manticore Core has been successfully building a platform, a metaverse By Stephan Steininger • 3 min read
Hester Woodliffe, representative of WB Games and Chairwoman of VGE, and Hendrik Lesser, rcp and President of EGDF © EGDF/VGE Business Europe's Games Industry 2023: More Studios, More Employees, Less Revenue The two European gaming umbrella organisations, Video Games Europe (VGE) and the European Games Developer Federation (EGDF), have published their new report shortly before gamescom. It includes data from 22 European countries for the year 2023, with some surprising results. The fact that the report only presents figures from 2023 By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
German games market in the first half of 2025 © game - The German Games Industry Association Business German Games Market Back on Track for Growth During the gamescom pre-show press conference, the game association also released initial data on the development of the German games market in the first half of 2025. With an increase of 4 percent, the market continued to grow. The German games market is back on track for growth. This is By Stephan Steininger • 2 min read
© Koelnmesse GmbH/Marvin Ruppert Business Gamescom Breaks First Records Even Before Opening One week before Opening Night Live, Koelnmesse and game provided an update on the figures and programme for gamescom at the traditional pre-show press conference. Initial records were announced for the number of country pavilions and the exhibition space. One week before the start of the show, gamescom is well By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
gamescom latam-CEO Gustavo Steinberg: "Year after year, gamescom latam BIG Festival has established itself as an important space not only for showcasing incredible games from around the world, but also for connecting with the audience." © gamescom latam Business Submissions for BIG Festival Awards Are Now Open Although gamescom in Cologne and gamescom asia in Bangkok are still coming up this year, it is already time to start planning for gamescom latam 2026: The BIG Festival, which is part of the event, has opened the submission phase for its awards. This year, studios from the GSA region By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
© Pexels Products These Studios Received Almost €10 Million in Funding from the BKM With new elections on the horizon, the old government briefly launched a games funding programme at the turn of the year, using money from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media's (BKM; Bundeskulturstaatsministerin) budget. The games approved for funding from this pot have now been included By Stephan Steininger • 3 min read
So far, the funding commitments currently being published are still based on applications submitted before Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär took over responsibility for games funding. However, her new call for proposals, which has been open for new submissions since the beginning of August, will soon lead to a massive increase in commitments. © Bundesregierung/Steffen Kugler Business Funding Approvals for WastedStudios and King Art The federal government has approved funding of €350,000 for the two studios King Art and WastedStudios. This brings the number of approvals this year to 16. The new entries became visible after a change apparently meant that no current funding projects from the games sector were available for several By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
After his own malt drink, Maximilian Knabe (HandOfBlood) now also gets his own cola © Instinct3 Business HandOfBlood and Instinct3 Expand FMCG-Partnership With Krombacher Following the success of Knabe Malz, Maximilian Knabe (HandOfBlood), his agency Instinct3 and Drinks & More, part of Krombacher, are launching two cola drinks onto the market. Shortly before gamescom, Knabe Kola and Knabe Kola Zero Sugar will go on sale at Netto, Edeka, Globus and other selected retailers. The By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
