At yesterday's FFF Press Lunch, the Bavarian funding agency has revealed its yearly numbers for 2025. 2.5 million euros in games funding, a lot of XR presence on festivals and of course plenty of movie successes have been presented.
The FilmFernsehFonds Bayern (FFF) traditionally unveils the collected numbers of the last year at its Press Lunch event, which took place yesterday at Eli in Munich. The numbers as well as the audience are traditionally very heavily about film and TV, but games and XR also play an important role. And the numbers are quite impressive.
More than 30 game projects received FFF funding totaling €2.5 million in 2025.
Production funding was awarded to: Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker (Gentle Troll Entertainment), Full Suspension (Deficit Games), Oku (Irox Games), Paper Play VR (Studio Moondowner), Prospera (Active Fungus Studios), Train Jumble (Emergo Entertainment), and EverRail, for which Aesir Interactive drew down a success loan of around €160,000.
Five funded games celebrated successful releases in 2025: Paper Animal RPG (Cuddling Racoons Studio), The Ebbing (Active Fungus Studios), Once Upon A Tile (KnotHorn Studio), Ruffy and the Riverside (Zockrates Laboratories), and Let Them Trade (Spaceflower). The funded game Stuntboost by Byting Games won the Ubisoft Newcomer Award at the German Developer Awards.
The committee recommended 19 experiences for FFF XR funding, nine of which received production funding. These include Atmosphere, the new project from Reynard Films, the mixed reality experience DeMaré (Actrio Studio), Library of Dreams (Abduct Media), Salzsammler (Schäfer & Schilling), the application Virtual X-ray Training in Dentistry (QM Interactive), and What the fox (Manuel Steitz). Presentations of funded experiences were given on international stages, such as Venice Immersive, where one project was exhibited at the Biennale College and three others were in competition. The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up (Reynard Films) won the main prize in the competition in Venice.
FFF Managing Director Dorothee Erpenstein said: “Last year once again demonstrated the reliability and strength of FFF Bayern. This continuity and the commitment of FFF Bayern and its committees are the basis for the successes on the big screen that we saw in 2025. Funded films performed brilliantly. It couldn't have been better!”
Bavaria’s Media Minister Dr. Florian Herrmann added: "Bavaria is a film-making region! This is demonstrated by the consistently high level of funding provided by the FFF Bayern. The FFF is not only a reliable and powerful funding instrument. It is also a strategic partner, a source of inspiration, and a guarantor that Bavaria remains visible in national and, increasingly, international competition. It ensures that exceptional creative achievements can be produced here. I would also like to express my gratitude to the shareholders and the Bavarian Banking Fund. Despite major challenges, film funding can continue to count on Bavaria in the future."
FFF Bayern supported 23 media location initiatives with a total of more than €600,000, most of them from the TV and movie cosmos. Those relevant for gaming and XR included the Creators Conference (Production Alliance), the HFF Screenings (HFF Munich), the Screenwriters' Lounge (German Screenwriters' Association) and the XR Track at the Festival of the Future (1E9 Think Tank).
Looking into 2026, the following FFF-funded games are slated release in 2026: Legend of Khiimori, ChromaGun 2, Aquapark Tycoon, Cloudscrapers, and Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker. The German Computer Game Award (DCP) ceremony will take place in Munich at the end of April. The updated games funding guidelines will come into force in the middle of the year. From 2026 onward, the Bavarian State Ministry of Digital Affairs had also announced a significant increase in funding for games.
The funded experiences The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up and Out of Nowhere will be at XR Experiences Spotlight series at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin in March. The new XR guideline came into force at the beginning of the year, with the maximum possible funding amount for developments and productions having been tripled.
You can find several graphics of the funding here and below, in German:
