Olly Barnes and Simon Hade (from left) © Nextbeat Business Simon Hade and Olly Barnes Found NextBeat Backed by Supercell Following Supercell's full acquisition of Space Ape Games, former managers Simon Hade and Olly Barnes have launched a new company, NextBeat, taking the music-focused games Beatstar and Country Star with them. NextBeat aims to open up new revenue channels for the music industry through apps and games, with By Stephan Steininger • 2 min read
EA Sports FC 25 / Hogwarts Legacy © EA / Warner Bros. Publishing German Games Charts December 2024 With Many Returners and Old Favourites EA Sports FC 25 continues to top the PC and console charts in Germany in December 2024. In time for Christmas, numerous games and long-running titles have returned. Seven games from Electronic Arts are in the top 20. The official charts for December 2024, published by the game association, have By Marcel Kleffmann • 2 min read
© Guidelight Games / Ghost Ship Publishing Products SpellRogue Rolling dice and manipulating them to cast spells is the basic idea behind SpellRogue - a deck-building roguelike with turn-based combat. The game comes from Guidelight Games and Ghost Ship Publishing, both based in Denmark, with the latter having big plans for this year. SpellRogue is about using magic dice, By Marcel Kleffmann • 4 min read
© EG7 Business Enad Global 7 Closes Toadman Interactive and Cuts Jobs at Piranha Games Swedish group Enad Global 7 has announced plans to optimise its business. As a result, the team at Piranha Games will be reduced and Toadman Interactive will be closed. Toadman also had an office in Berlin. Enad Global 7 (EG7) has announced the initiation of a business optimisation plan at By Marcel Kleffmann • 2 min read
© DCP Business Submissions for the DCP Still Possible Until Friday Studios and publishers have until the end of the week to submit their products for the DCP, including entries for the international category. Nominations for Studio of the Year and Player of the Year are also still possible. The submission phase for the Deutscher Computerspielpreis (DCP; German Computer Games Award) By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
GameStop outlet © Archive Picture Business GameStop Closes 69 Stores in Germany by the End of January Following the recent shutdown of its German web store, GameStop will close a total of 69 stores in Germany by the end of January 2025. Following the announcement in December that GameStop would be winding down its operations in Germany (GamesMarkt reported), the company has announced specific store closures. A By Marcel Kleffmann • 3 min read
SPD General Secretary Dr. Matthias Miersch will talk to Felix Falk of game © SPD/MK Business Matthias Miersch is a Guest at the #gamechanger Talk on the 2025 Election The upcoming federal election will shape the future of games policy in Germany. To explore the parties' positions, Felix Falk from game will host conversations with leading political representatives in the coming weeks. The first guest in the new series of #gamechanger talks will be SPD General Secretary Dr. By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
Another Galaxus logistics center is being built in Neuchâtel, which will supply the German market as well as customers in Switzerland and France © Galaxus Business Galaxus Germany Is Growing Disproportionately With a 27 percent increase in sales, the German division of Swiss online retailer Galaxus has experienced significant growth. Compared to 2022, its sales have nearly doubled. However, the company is still far from achieving the same level of market dominance it enjoys in its Swiss home market. In Switzerland, By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
Astro Bot, Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Helldivers 2 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle © DICE, SIE, Playstack, Game Science, SIE, Bethesda Business 28th Annual DICE Awards Finalists With One Nominee From Germany The nominees for the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards have been announced. A total of 60 games from the year 2024 have been selected. Among them is a game from Germany. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has announced the nominees for its 28th Annual D. By Marcel Kleffmann • 3 min read
© Dataspelsbranschen Business Dataspelbranschen Reflects Positively on Scholarship Program The first King & Swedish Games Industry Scholarship concluded with a final game jam held at King’s offices in Stockholm. The Swedish association, Dataspelbranschen, has expressed satisfaction with the program and is already eager to create further opportunities for newcomers to the industry. A total of 25 women and By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
© Steininger Business 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 By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
Gunnar Lott and Chris Schmidt © Stay Forever/archive picture 2017 Business Gunnar Lott Focuses on Stay Forever Co-founder Gunnar Lott has stepped down from the agency Visibility right before its rebranding as keySquare. Moving forward, he will dedicate his efforts to his long-running games podcast project Stay Forever. Lott co-founded Visibility Communications in 2013 (in German) alongside Carolin Freitag, who served then and will continue serving as By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
