A new funding program has been launched in Germany to help support the gaming industry, and will allow German developers to claim back 25 to 50 percent of their development costs back.
German Federal Minister Andreas Scheuer announced that the program started as of the beginning of gamescom yesterday, with applications being able to be submitted from September 28.
"The launch of the major games fund means Germany can finally become internationally competitive as a games location. This is the starting signal for our comeback," says game Managing Director Felix Falk. "I am thankful for the confirmation that lessons have been learned from the experiences of the past few months and that, in future, funding is to be administered as quickly and unbureaucratically as possible and tailored to the needs of games companies. If that works, we can soon look forward to many more games and game innovations coming out of Germany."
Productions between 100,000 and 2 million euros are to be funded at 50 percent, with productions from 2 to 8 million euros funded on a "degressive scale" from 50 to 25 percent. Over 8 million euros are funded at a maximum of 25 percent, and projects that will cost over 40 million euros are to be "separately assessed with regard to their innovative impulses, cultural relevance, economic effects and available means." Those that can be funded are games companies that either have their headquarters or business premises in Germany, or legal entities and legal structures such as GmbHs.
For those interested in learning more about the German games fund, be sure to go to this page, which goes into some detail explaining how the program will work.
What do you think of this news? Do you think this is a good idea? Are there any German developers that you like or support? Let us know in the comments!
