To make Berlin the number one games location - that was the goal of Franziska Giffey (SPD), who in her function as governing mayor had invited to a 'round table' in November 2022.
The concrete implementation of this mission is now the responsibility of her successor, who clearly won the repeat election on February 12 with 28 percent: CDU candidate Kai Wegner will lead the future state government and has negotiated a grand coalition with the Social Democrats under Giffey's leadership.
The coalition agreement is entitled "The Best for Berlin" (PDF), and consequently also bears a slightly different signature compared to the previous Red-Red-Green Senate. On the 135 pages, in addition to the priorities of housing, administration, transport, education and internal security, the cornerstones for future games and e-sports policy are also defined.
The coalition plans
- the establishment of a "leading event in the games sector
- start-up financing for a "House of Games
- the reorientation of the brand "GamesCapitalBerlin
- cooperation with the Computer Games Museum and the International Computer Games Collection, which is currently being established
- continuation of the 'Round Table' on games and e-sports - recently under the auspices of the economic administration.
Details on regional games funding by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg are not included in the paper. Nevertheless, the funds had only been increased by one million € for Gamescom 2022 - the state is also working on a new, dedicated guideline.
Original article on gameswirtschaft.de.
April 2023
