At the Christmas party of Games/Bavaria, Digital Minister Mehring confirmed that the funding for games, esports and XR will double to the target amount of more than 12 million euros in 2026. Minimum 5 million of that will go directly to studios.
At yesterday’s official Christmas party of the Bavarian games industry, organised by Games/Bavaria at Gamerei in Munich, several good news came with announcements from Bavarian Digital Minister Fabian Mehring.
The most important ones revolved about Bavaria’s games, XR and esports funding. Mehring announced officially that the funding for the three areas combined would be doubled in 2026 in comparison to 2025. This will include product funding through the FFF Bayern and funds for location promotion through the Medien.Bayern daughter XR Hub and Games/Bavaria as well as the Esport Verband Bayern.
For comparison: Bavaria currently invests around 6.4 million euros into games, XR and Esports. 2.4 million went into games products in 2025, around 1.0 million into XR, and 686.000 to Games/Bavaria for Gamerei, GG Bavaria and other location promotion programs. The rest went into other investments for Bavaria as a games, XR and esports location.
Mehring also gave concrete promises on the distribution of the funds. At least 4.0 million euros will be allotted to game studios for production, prototyping and concept funding through the FFF, and at least 1.0 million the FFF will give out to XR studios. Games/Bavaria’s funding will be stocked up to at least 1.0 million euros – 647.000 of which the Minister handed out with a ceremonial check right there, the rest to be allotted in 2026. The money will also feed into the Gamerei’s upkeep, which has been confirmed to be securely financed as long as Mehring’s term as minister goes.
Mehring’s announcement was an official statement of the Ministry, but the full amount of money will only be available after the Bavarian Landtag confirms the household budget in early 2026.
The new funding money will also come with an updated funding guideline, that brings the Bavarian state funding in line with the new Federal funding guidelines. NRW and Berlin had recently announced similar changes to their guidelines. While their guidelines are already amended and confirmed by the EU funding authorities, Bavaria will follow in 2026.
Lastly, before the party went into full swing, Mehring also gave out ceremonial checks to the latest round of games funding recipients.
