games.nrw Commends New NRW Funding Guideline

With the new funding guidelines in August, NRW became the first Federal state to change production funding from credit to a grant. Now, games.nrw is commending the decision as a "smart transitions to federal funding".

The new funding guidelines for Federal state NRW had been announced by Media Minister Nathanael Liminski at gamescom. Crucially, the new guidelines state that from now on, NRW has changed its games production funding from a loan system to a grant, meaning that games studios do not need to pay back the loan. Now, games.nrw, the representation for the interest of the games industry in the region, has commented positively on the new system. Regarding the funding guidelines, games.nrw welcomes the support for smaller studios and start-ups with production costs of up to €300,000, since this closes the gap to Federal funding.

“The new guideline is based on the actual activities of the studios and creates smart transitions to federal funding,” says Benedikt Grindel, spokesperson for the board of games.nrw. “It is the result of close coordination between politicians, the media foundation, and the industry—and shows how dialogue can lead to improvements that benefit both young and established players in the games cluster.”

“After gamescom, we as an association took stock of the situation,” adds Katharina Weiß, deputy spokesperson for the board. “Dialogue with industry partners is important – as demonstrated by the new concept for the state's stand at gamescom. Analysis of stands from previous years provided impetus, enabling the NRW trade fair presence to offer more services to companies and provide a stage for their games.”