BMWK Provides Information About New Funding and Corrects Misunderstandings

On January 14, the BMWK and the DLR Project Management organise a webinar on the new federal funding guidelines. In its first funding newsletter of the year, the BMWK also addresses misunderstandings regarding the budgets of funded games and the rules for combining funding sources.

The virtual kick-off event for the revised funding program by the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK; Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action) is scheduled for January 14 at 5:00 p.m. The ministry, in collaboration with the industry association game, is organizing the event alongside the project management of DLR. Participation in the Zoom webinar does not require prior registration and can be accessed via this link.

In the first newsletter of 2024, the ministry seeks to clarify some misconceptions that, according to its statement, have circulated within the industry and the media. For instance, the upper limit of two million euros refers not to the total budget of a project eligible for funding, but to the maximum amount of funding a project can receive. The second clarification concerns the sensitive issue of combining funding. As the newsletter explains, combining federal funding with other funding sources is not permitted: “However, combining funding only applies to a specific individual project, such as a prototype,” the newsletter states. “It is still possible for projects that build on each other but can be distinguished (e.g., prototype and production / production and DLC) to be funded by different funding agencies.”

This means, for example, that state funding can be used for a game’s prototype while federal funding can later be applied to the production phase—provided no rules for state funding are violated.

Never miss anything from the German, Swiss and Austrian games industry again: subscribe for free to our Daily newsletter and get all news straight to your inbox.