Berlin Senator Giffey: "Important that Federal and State Funding are not Mutually Exclusive"

The senate administration of Franziska Giffey, Economics Senator of Berlin, gives a pointed, critical statements towards the Federal Gouvernment's game funding plans. The expectations towards the federal states and the money currently sitting unused at the Commissioner of Culture and Media are main points.

The department of Franziska Giffey, Senator for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises in Berlin, has now commented the planned new guidelines for Federal games funding in a statement towards GamesMarkt.

“We do not yet have the key points of the new directive, which were presented for the first time yesterday in a Twitch stream. We will of course evaluate the draft once it has been officially presented to us by the BMWK and then take a close look at which changes to the directive are important from the perspective of the federal states and Berlin in order to effectively promote the games industry. To this end, talks between the federal government and the federal states must now be held promptly,” said a speaker of Giffey’s house.

Key point for many of the federal states was the responsibility for smaller games, given by Federal Commissioner Michael Kellner in yesterday’s gamechanger talk to the states.

“In Berlin, there is shared responsibility for the topic. The Berlin Senate Chancellery is responsible for games project funding policy, as this is where the funding for games funding is channelled through Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. The Senate Chancellery is also in charge of negotiating tax rebates for film funding. As the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, we are organising the Games Round Table, for example, which will take place again in just over two weeks' time (on 6 May) with Senator Giffey. The key points of the directive, which will presumably be available by then, will certainly be discussed there.

Fundamentally, we believe it is important that federal and state funding are not mutually exclusive. It is also clear that we need to catch up in terms of games funding in order to avoid suffering a competitive disadvantage, especially when it comes to international relocations. To this end, the federal government must quickly fulfil its responsibility for Germany as a games location.”

Specifically, the Senator for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises is urging not just Habeck’s Ministry of Economy, but also the Commissioner for Culture and Media, Claudia Roth, who currently holds an additional 33 million euros for games that can not yet be applied for.

“To this end, it is also urgently necessary to clarify how the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) intends to make the funds of EUR 33 million available there in 2024 for games funding available to the industry as quickly as possible. Particularly as the German Computer Games Prize (DCP) is being awarded today, a roadmap from the BKM in this regard would be very welcome from Berlin's perspective. But first, we are keeping our fingers crossed for the Berlin DCP nominees today.”