Editorial
2025 has been a full year for all ranges of the games industry, but the last days of any year are always special in their own way. December is a special time of the year, not just because presents are great. It comes with all the excitement the end of the gaming year can offer: The German Developer Awards in GSA, and The Game Awards worldwide.
This December specifically is also a special milestone for me and us: It marks the first half year of my colleagues Marcel, Stephan and me leading GamesMarkt into its independence and leading the magazine into a sustainable future. If you are an avid online follower, you will have already noticed that we have rolled out a massive relaunch of our website, with greatly enhanced performance and visuals as well as new subscription options for our exclusive content. If you had not noticed until now, I can only recommend you go and visit gamesmarket.global right now! And if you want to unlock all GamesMarkt content for your institution, whether you work at a studio, publisher, agency, university or anything else, please get in contact with us as well.
Speaking of relaunches, the game engine world has seen quite a few shake-ups in recent times. If I say ‘Unity’, what comes to your mind first: The monetisation changes that led to widespread protest in 2023, or the engine’s newest collaboration with the other engine giant, Epic? Either way, we got both issues covered in our Engine topic, with Unity and Unreal collaboration for one, but also with a look into Godot, the open source engine popular with indie games that soared after Unity blundered, and an exclusive interview with the Godot Foundation’s Executive Director we met at GodotFest 2025. I can also only proudly recommend the features on and interviews with some GSA service providers you will find in this issue, from Swiss indie publisher Metaroot to distributor CentreSoft, formerly NBG. And, of course, no December GamesMarkt issue would be complete without the lowdown on all important events and dates in 2026 and of course our wall calendar for the new year.
I wish you a successful start into the new year, and hope to see you healthy in 2026!
Pascal Wagner
Content
03 EDITORIAL
06 BIG PICTURE
08 PEOPLE
Heads and headlines that have caused a stir in the games industry in the recent weeks.
MAGAZINE
12 DEP2025
Deutscher Entwicklerpreis: Who are this year’s winners of the German Developer Award?
14 KÖLNBUSINESS
The significance of Cologne as a centre for the German games industry.
18 CENTRESOFT
Thomas Schütterle offers insights on NBG’s renaming and the state of the retail market.
22 DEVGAMM
Following the success of DevGAMM in Lisbon, a new event will be held in Dubai next year.
28 WOMEN IN GAMES
Lucina Hum aka Bisalina is bringing the industry together through speedrunning.
30 GAMESGROUND
The event in Berlin is growing rapidly, but now needs to position itself for the future.
32 METAROOT
The Swiss family business behind the indie hit, The Farmer Was Replaced.
36 STUDIO PORTRAIT
Restrictions breed creativity, something that riprip, an indie studio from Kassel, knows well.
38 URBANGAMES
Independence: The Swiss company self-financed the $25m budget for Transport Fever 3.
ENGINES
44 GODOTFEST
The up-and-coming engine and an interview with Emilio Coppola, head of the foundation.
48 WAREWARE
Riprip is offering free use of their proprietary engine software for small 3D games.
50 UNITY
Unite 25 not only saw the announcement of the collaboration between Epic Games & Unity.
52 UNREAL
What improvements have been made to the Unreal Engine in version 5.7?
PRODUCTS
56 RETROSPECT & PREVIEW
A glimpse back at 2025, and a sneak peek at the gaming year of 2026.
58 PUBLISHERSPOTLIGHT
Capcom has a lot of irons in the fire, and not just the blockbuster Resident Evil Requiem.
62 MONSTER HUNTER STORIES 3
64 RESIDENT EVIL REQUIEM
66 AVATAR: FROMTHEASHES
68 PIONEERS OF PAGONIA
69 WORLD OF WARCRAFT MIDNIGHT
70 DRAGON QUEST VII REIMAGINED
71 CODE VEIN II
72 IMPRINT
72 EVENTS
Download Issue 472
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