Managing Directors Robert May, Florian Köhne as well as Matthias Murmann from btf at the founding ceremony of Blue Backpack in August 2025. © Blue Backpack Business Blue Backpack Signs Publishing Agreement with Parco Games for Asia Blue Backpack, formerly known as the games department of btf (bildundtonfabrik), has announced a strategic partnership with the Asian video game publisher Parco Games. Publishing rights have been granted for Constance and The Berlin Apartment. Under the terms of the partnership, Parco Games will be responsible for publishing and marketing By Marcel Kleffmann • 1 min read
Helge Jürgens, MD of the New Media Funding, will always be part of the new media committee. © MBB Business New MBB Funding System is Committee Based The Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg has announced its new funding system for movies and games. From now on, funding decisions will be held by a rotating committee. For games, experts on the committee include Daniel Budiman, Thomas Bedenk, Lena Gieseke, Binh Minh Herbst and more industry veterans from the capital region. To By Pascal Wagner • 1 min read
New Global Sport Conference 2025 © Esports World Cup / New Global Sport Conference Esports New Global Sport Conference 2025 Concludes Esports World Cup Following the Esports World Cup, the New Global Sport Conference 2025 took place in Riyadh. The event was attended by more than 1,500 delegates, including 500 CEOs from sectors such as gaming, esports, sports, technology and investment. The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) concluded the New Global Sport Conference By Marcel Kleffmann • 2 min read
CEO Kevin Schulz (center) looks back on a successful gamescom 2025. © Black Screen Records Business Black Screen Records Breaks gamescom Sales Record For the third year in a row, games vinyl label Black Screen Records has broken its gamescom sales records. CEO Kevin Schulz attributes the growth to partnerships with Laced Records and Devolver, but especially to rising interest in anime vinyls. Once again, Cologne vinyl label Black Screen Records (BSR) has By Pascal Wagner • 1 min read
David Lowey, Atari's Senior Director of Marketing and Wade Rosen, Chairman and CEO of Atari © GamesMarkt, Marcel Kleffmann Business Atari Acquires Five Ubisoft IPs to Revive These Games Atari has acquired the intellectual property rights to five Ubisoft titles. These are Cold Fear, I Am Alive, Child of Eden, Grow Home and Grow Up. The publisher intends to re-release the games and is exploring ways to increase their visibility. Atari has acquired the intellectual property rights for five By Marcel Kleffmann • 1 min read
Game City 2024 © Andreas Tischler / Vienna Press Business Game City 2025 Sees High Demand From 10 to 12 October 2025, Vienna's City Hall and Rathausplatz will once again host Game City. According to the organisers, there is high demand. As usual, the Game City in Vienna is taking place this year, once again with free admission. According to the organisers, demand is By Marcel Kleffmann • 1 min read
Plaion X Pearl Abyss © Plaion Business Plaion Signs Worldwide Physical Distribution Partnership With Pearl Abyss Plaion will handle the worldwide physical distribution of the AAA action adventure game Crimson Desert from Pearl Abyss. The highly anticipated game is scheduled for release in early 2026. Plaion has announced a distribution partnership with Pearl Abyss for the upcoming launch of Crimson Desert. As part of this collaboration, By Marcel Kleffmann • 1 min read
The eye of the voidstorm in Cologne. © Blizzard Entertainment / wetter Business Blizzard Collaborates With wetter.com for World of Warcraft: Midnight To promote World of Warcraft: Midnight, which was unveiled at gamescom 2025, Blizzard Entertainment collaborated with wetter.com to conjure up a voidstorm. At gamescom 2025, Blizzard Entertainment unveiled World of Warcraft: Midnight. This expansion to the MMORPG is scheduled for release in the first half of 2026, pitting players By Marcel Kleffmann • 1 min read
Oliver Miescher (left) will head the programme, Stefan Schmidlin joins the foundation's board of trustees. © Miescher; Schmidlin Business Zurich Movie Foundation Starts Games Funding 4.5 million Francs over the next three years: In a timed experiment, the Swiss canton Zurich is now funding games and XR projects in the categories Prototype and Production through Zürcher Filmstiftung. For the first time ever, the Zurich Movie Foundation (Zürcher Filmstiftung) has started a games funding programme. By Pascal Wagner • 1 min read
Physical card games such as the Pokémon TCG can be connected to gambling problems, the study claims. © Caleb Oquendo, Pexels Campus Study Connects Loot Boxes and Trading Cards to Problematic Gambling Mechanisms A study by the City University of Hong Kong shows possible links of loot boxes and physical trading card games to gambling problems. Notably, the effectiveness of these mechanisms appear to be unrelated to buyers' overall state of mental health. An open-access study by the City University of Hong By Pascal Wagner • 1 min read
© Student Games Festival Campus First Student Games Festival Comes to Warsaw On 18 October, the first Student Games Festival will be organised in Warsaw. Submissions for the game awards run until 31 August. The event is hosted by Polish cultural and educational organisations in cooperation with Warsaw, the Cultural Ministry and 11 bit studios. The first international student game festival is By Pascal Wagner • 1 min read
From left to right: Carl Kuhn, Executive Director Gaming & E-Sports at JvM Sports, and Thanh Dao, Managing Director at JvM Nerd © Jung von Matt Business JvM Group Introduces New Cross-Agency Leadership Duo The JvM Group is expanding its gaming services and setting up an international agency team. Thanh Dao (JvM Nerd) and Carl Kuhn (JvM Sports) will lead this team. However, JvM Nerd founder Toan Nguyen and co-managing director André Price will be leaving the agency at the end of the year By Marcel Kleffmann • 2 min read
