Berlin Expands gamescapital.berlin Initiative to Location Marketing Campaign

The current 'Runder Tisch Games' in Berlin focused on increasing the visibility of the games location in the capital region as well as the flagship project 'House of Games'. Economics Senator Francesca Giffey also criticised the federal government and called for improvements in funding.

In Berlin, politicians regularly meet with representatives of the games industry at the "Runder Tisch Games" (Round Table Games). The Round Table met last week, although the first results of the meeting have only just been announced. Participants included Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, medianet berlinbrandenburg e. V., game - Association of the German Games Industry, Freaks 4U Gaming and Games Ground.

One of the key topics was, of course, federal funding, after the key points of a new games funding guideline presented by the BMWK had been the subject of discussion for weeks. Franziska Giffey, Berlin's Senator for Economics, is also not entirely satisfied and is calling for improvements in two areas in particular:

"A strong games location is in the interest of the capital as a strong business location. We are calling on the Federal Ministry of Economics to lower the future minimum project amount of €400,000, as otherwise small studios in particular will be disadvantaged and the state of Berlin will not be able to compensate for this loss of funding in the foreseeable future," says Giffey. "Furthermore, it is currently incomprehensible why it should no longer be possible to combine federal and state funding. We call on the federal government to find a solution that will allow us, as a state, to continue to provide additional state funding to successful Berlin games companies that receive federal funding, as has been the case for many years in the film industry."

Similar criticism has already been voiced by other German states, including Bavaria, where new digital minister Fabian Mehring has stepped up the pace on the games front by announcing his own 'House of Games'. This is actually a flagship project for Berlin and was also a topic at the Games Round Table. The state of planning was presented and the next steps were discussed with the industry. Unlike in Bavaria, the House of Games in Berlin will probably not open this year, but this is also due to the fact that it is planned as a much more comprehensive project than in the south of Germany.

A third important point in the discussion was Berlin's endeavour to become even more visible as a hotspot of the games industry. For this reason, the economic administration intends to expand the gamescapital.berlin initiative into a location marketing campaign. The ideas and requirements put forward by industry representatives will be incorporated into the reorganisation of location marketing.

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