When the video game developed in the GDR and turned out to be political

Audio 02:31

The development of video games in the former East Germany was initially a political will (illustration image).

© CC0 - Pixabay/AndrzejRembowski

By: Julien Mechaussie

Big winner of the health crisis and its confinements, the video game industry has exploded in the last two years*.

This industry began to take off in the 1970s in North America, then in Western Europe.

But there is an unknown part of this story: the one that took place behind the Iron Curtain, in Eastern Europe, and in particular in the GDR, formerly East Germany.

Meet these video game pioneers...

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*In 2021, the turnover of the video game industry worldwide amounted to 300 billion euros, more than the revenues generated by cinema and music combined.

► A report to be found in full in Accents d'Europe

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  • Germany

  • Video games

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