German politics is increasingly perceiving video games as a relevant economic factor.
On Wednesday, Transport and Digital Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) presented a strategy for the first time to make Germany a relevant location for the development of "games".
To implement the strategy, Scheuer's ministry now has its own department for video games.
"Games are the most exciting medium of our time," said the minister.
Bastian Benrath
Editor in business.
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Germany is the largest market for video games in Europe and the fifth largest in the world.
Nevertheless, only around 5 percent of the sales generated here with games for PC, game consoles and mobile phones are also generated by German companies.
In order to change that, Germany is to be established as a “lead market” for video games according to the strategy.
On the one hand, the federal government wants to help established formats such as the largest video game fair in the world in terms of visitors, Gamescom in Cologne, and the German Computer Game Prize, to gain more international recognition.
On the other hand, there should be coordinated advertising for game development specialists from other countries.
Video games should be recognized in school
In addition, state funding from the federal and state governments should be better coordinated.
At the federal level, 250 million euros were made available for the first time last year, spread over several years, to fund game developments from Germany.
Scheuer said on Wednesday that 110 funding projects had already been completed and another 190 were being processed.
The strategy also envisages promoting development centers in incubators or coworking spaces.
Universities are to be better networked with the video game industry and joint projects with business and science are to be financially supported.
"Serious Games", video games with learning content, should be recognized as aids in school.
Furthermore, Scheuer's ministry wants to “intensify the dialogue” so that e-sports clubs are more easily recognized as non-profit in the future.
The managing director of the Association of the German Video Game Industry "Game", Felix Falk, called the strategy an "important milestone". Germany still does not have a level playing field with other video game development locations in the world. But they are on the right track. It is now up to the coming federal government to “concretise this strategy and implement it consistently so that the German games location can grow sustainably and catch up with the world's best”.