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From the point of view of the Game Industry Association, the Federal Audit Office is not allowing for the promotion of computer games “crucial factors ignored”.
The Berlin industry association Game was obviously well prepared for the Federal Audit Office’s analysis, which was published in the afternoon: In a 28-page statement on the “Promoting computer game development at federal level” The supervisors are sharply criticizing the awarding of funding to Germany's games developers, which has been practiced since 2019 and has been the responsibility of the Ministry of Economic Affairs since 2022.
Less than 60 minutes after the GamesWirtschaft article was published, the association has already issued a detailed statement. In it, Game Managing Director Felix Falk criticizes the fact that the Court of Auditors’ criticism “the decisive factors are unfortunately completely ignored” and fails to recognize the objectives of the measure.
Germany has “due to the one-sided focus on feared dangers from games in the 1990s and early 2000s” (this includes the so-called 'killer game debate') the potential of computer games “almost completely overslept”while other locations experienced substantial growth thanks to targeted support measures.
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This has resulted in disadvantages in international competition, which continue to have a negative impact today. This backlog is “only with internationally competitive games funding” to make production conditions comparable. An evaluation commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and presented in December 2023 has “clearly demonstrated that Germany is on exactly the right path”says Falk.
Now it is important to expand support at the federal level with competitive guidelines: “Internationally competitive conditions cannot be created without predictable and reliable games funding. This has therefore been part of the federal government's games strategy for years. The federal government must continue to pursue this rigorously, in contrast to the opinion of the Federal Audit Office, which completely ignores the global market reality.”
The association’s statement does not address the Court of Auditors’ specific points of criticism.
In April, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (BMWK) presented the key points of a reformed funding guideline, which was met with criticism from both the industry and the states. The ministry's first proposal includes, among other things, reduced funding quotas, a greatly increased minimum project size (which is too much for small studios), a stronger commitment from the federal states and a ban on 'accumulation' with state funds.
From the association's point of view, there is a particular lack of planning and reliability – Parliamentary State Secretary Michael Kellner (Greens) has promised improvements.