Funding Applications for Games Projects up to €900,000 Stopped

Less than two months after the launch of the games funding programme, the budget allocated by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWK) has been exhausted. As a result, an application stop for projects with a funding volume of up to €900,000 was announced today.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BKM) has announced that the demand for games funding, which resumed at the end of 2024, has been much higher than in the past. In just under two months, more than 60 applications for BKM-funded games with eligible development costs of up to €900,000 were submitted. In total, more than €17.5 million has been requested in this area. The additional funds provided by the BKM on top of the BMWK funds have thus been fully claimed within a short period of time. With regard to the further development of this funding programme, it remains to be seen how the new federal budget for 2025 will be formulated.

The part of the games funding that is based on the BMWK's own resources will be continued for projects starting at €900,000 or prototypes that will be completed in 2025. Just over €2 million are still available. In addition, games funding is also tied to the current framework conditions of the preliminary state budget.

Felix Falk, Managing Director of game - The German Games Industry Association, comments on the stop of applications: "The renewed stop of applications - the third since the start of the games funding in 2020 - comes as no surprise and once again harms companies and Germany as a business location. Given the poor investment climate and cost disadvantages of more than 30 per cent without internationally comparable funding, this situation is absolutely damaging for games companies in this country. Once again, it is clear that companies need predictability, which can only be achieved with a supplementary model of tax-based games funding, as has long been the norm in internationally successful locations. The next Federal Government can and must finally put an end to the back and forth of recent years and create competitive conditions for Germany to catch up internationally."

Irrespective of the use of funds, the consultation on draft projects will continue so that interested parties can remain well-informed and prepared to apply for projects of all sizes.

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.