© 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
In its news section, Streams Charts evaluated the most-viewed streamers in various regions and countries and published the corresponding data in graphs like this one about the Most Watched German Streamers © Streams Charts Business German Streamers eliasn97 and Papaplatte Among the Top 20 Worldwide Streams Charts has published its rankings of the top ten streamers in 2024 based on viewer hours across various regions. We’ve compiled this data into a comprehensive list. Naturally, the resulting top 90 is not exhaustive. For instance, data from Chinese streams is missing entirely. Additionally, Streams Charts only By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer © GamesMarkt, Marcel Kleffmann Business Ubisoft Makes Itself Attractive to Potential Buyers by Delaying Assassin's Creed Shadows In a strategy update, Ubisoft announced that the company is pursuing "various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for Stakeholders". These could include an outright sale or a break-up of assets and franchises. And the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows has been By Marcel Kleffmann • 2 min read
Carolin Freitag, Founder and Managing Director of keySquare / Nils Ehring, Senior Project Manager © keySquare Business Visibility Becomes keySquare (Again) Visibility, the Berlin-based communications agency specializing in games and technology clients, will now operate under the name keySquare. Nils Ehring joins the team as Senior Project Manager. The new name is the old name, because the company was officially founded under this name in 2013. Visibility served as the brand By Marcel Kleffmann • 1 min read
Esports athlete Sahriilol (in front) plays League of Legends for politicians Saskia Esken, Karl Lauterbach (left) and Torsten Burmester (right) © IMAGO / Panama Pictures Business SPD Top Politicians Visit the Esports Player Foundation As part of the election campaign for the office of Mayor of Cologne, the esports player foundation welcomed SPD candidate and former DOSB chairman Torsten Burmester to its headquarters. He was accompanied by prominent party colleagues, including SPD co-leader Saskia Esken and Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. With early parliamentary By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
Klemens Kundratitz, CEO and co-founder / Phil Rogers, Deputy CEO of Embracer Group © Plaion / Fredrik Karlsson solstafoto Business Phil Rogers Named New CEO of Plaion, Klemens Kundratitz Becomes Strategic Advisor to Embracer Leadership change at Plaion: CEO and co-founder Klemens Kundratitz hands over the CEO position to Phil Rogers, Deputy CEO of Embracer Group. Kundratitz wishes to step back from day-to-day operations and become a strategic advisor to Embracer. After 31 years with Plaion, CEO and co-founder Dr Klemens Kundratitz has announced By Marcel Kleffmann • 2 min read
The ESBD has adjusted its definition of esports © acrhive image/Uniliga Esports ESBD Updates Its Esports Definition At its general meeting in December, the ESBD adopted a new definition of esports, which was published today. The updated definition, along with its three core characteristics, was developed in collaboration with the association’s scientific advisory board. According to the ESBD, the new framework is also suitable for use By Stephan Steininger • 2 min read
ERA CEO Kim Bayley © ERA Business UK Games Market Down 4.4% in 2024 Unlike in 2022 and 2023, the largest entertainment market in the UK in 2024 was no longer games, but video. Physical games have fallen particularly sharply, by almost a third. The Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) has released its full year UK market data for 2024. Total entertainment sales By Marcel Kleffmann • 2 min read
© Tencent Business Tencent Will Take Legal Action to Resolve "Misunderstanding" if Necessary Chinese publisher Tencent has issued a statement after being named on a list of Chinese military companies maintained by the US Department of Defense, the so-called CMC List. Tencent speaks of a misunderstanding, wants to seek dialogue, but will also go to court if necessary. This is stated in a By Team Gamesmarkt • 1 min read
© GM Business Usual Suspects, Successful Exclusives, and the Missing Surprise Hit The game association has released the annual charts for the best-selling console and PC games of 2024. While the top positions are similar to previous years, there are notable differences in the details. The elephant in the room, however, is the absence of Black Myth: Wukong. As was the case By Stephan Steininger • 2 min read
© GM Business Markus Wilding Goes Freelance Under the Name Beyond the Wall Consulting In recent weeks, former 2K and Private Division director Markus Wilding has taken on numerous freelance assignments under the name Beyond the Wall Consulting, including projects for devcom and Harakka Studio. He spoke to GamesMarkt about his plans and vision for his new consulting business. Markus Wilding transitioned to self-employment By Stephan Steininger • 3 min read
