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Germany has the second-largest video games player base in Europe, with 44.3 million gamers in 2018, after Russia. Consumers in Germany spent €5.87 billion on video games over the course of 2021, a 3 percent year-on-year increase from 2020. The video game market in Germany grew by 6 percent to €6.2 billion ($6.7 billion) in 2019.

The annual Gamescom in Cologne is the world's largest video game expo by number of attendees.

Home production

Origins

German production of popular video-games began principally on the 16-bit systems such as the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST in the 1980s, although a number of successful titles were also released on the Commodore 64 which dominated the 8-bit computer market in the country at the time. Popular developers of the 16-bit era included Thalion, Factor 5 (who were responsible for developing the entire Turrican series) and Blue Byte. Blue Byte and Factor 5 remain in existence in 2006 and produce titles for Windows PCs.

Modern day

By 2002, German games were heavily tilted toward construction and management simulations, according Der Spiegel's Frank Patalong. He noted that "nowhere else in the world are simulations as successful as here at home. Titles such as The Settlers, Die Völker Anno 1602 have dominated the German sales charts for years". Released in 1998, Anno 1602 by Sunflowers Interactive was Germany's best-selling computer game of all time as of December 2002, with sales of 2.5 million copies worldwide and 1.7 million in the German market. Its sequel, Anno 1503, broke its sales record to become Germany's fastest full-price computer game to reach 500,000 domestic sales. It ultimately sold over one million units in German-speaking countries, and, when combined with its predecessor, reached 4.5 million sales worldwide by October 2006. The titles began the Anno series.

One of the most famed titles to come out of Germany is Far Cry by Frankfurt-based Crytek, who also produced Crysis. Factor 5 had been concentrating on the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series of video games from 1999 until 2003, and released Lair, an action game for the PlayStation 3, in 2007.

Ascaron produced the Elite homage Darkstar One, and continued to produce the popular Anstoss (lit. 'Kickoff') series of football games, the first two installations of which were released under the title On the Ball in English-speaking countries.

The German Government, as a part of the Gamescom fair, has introduced an investment programme aimed towards the countrywide online games industry, with a purpose to offer assistance of as much as 50% of the cost of development.

Companies

Game developers from Germany

Former studios

Co-development

Game publishers from Germany

Former publishers

Games

Popular titles from Germany

• Ambermoon
• Ankh
• Anstoss
• Anno series
• AquaNox series
• BeamNG
• Brick Rigs
• Crazy Chicken series
• CrossCode
• Crysis series
• Deponia series
• Desperados series
• Elex series
• Far Cry series
• FIFA Manager series
• Gothic series
• Katakis
• Knights and Merchants: The Shattered Kingdom
• Lunistice (video game)
• Might and Magic series (eg. X)
• Heroes of Might and Magic series (eg. VI & VII series)
• Risen series
• Sacred (video game)
• Signalis
• Spec Ops: The Line
• SpellForce series
• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series
• The Dark Eye franchise
  • Original Realms of Arkania trilogy
  • Drakensang duology
• The Great Giana Sisters
• The Settlers series
• Tropico series (eg. #6 series)
• Turrican
• X series

Consumption

Within Germany there is a popular taste for historical trade and warfare simulations, notably exceeding that of many other countries. Some German-developed titles in this genre, such as 1602 A.D. and its sequels, and The Patrician, have also been successful abroad.

Vehicle simulator games are also very popular in Germany. Many add-on developers for established simulator franchises, including Train Simulator and Microsoft Flight Simulator, are based in Germany, with one of the most popular, Aerosoft, being based in North Rhine-Westphalia.

First-person shooters have also been traditionally quite popular in recent years, and there has been considerable debate about and censorship of the violent content of many such games. Consequently these games, especially uncut versions, became highly coveted in gaming circles for many years (though the modern Internet and VPNs allow players virtually anywhere to obtain a game from, or play on a server hosted in, virtually any other jurisdiction today).

Trade fairs

From 2002 to 2008 the main video game trade fair in Germany was the Games Convention which was held annually in Leipzig, and was highly recognized by the press. Since 2009 it was discontinued, as the Gamescom in Cologne took the place of the major video game trade fair in the world.

The USK, BPjM and censorship

Violence in video games is a controversial subject in Germany, and German localisations of violent games are often heavily cut by the publishers to permit a public release. Usually this entails a simple removal or reduction of depictions of blood and gore, but often extends to cuts in the content or plot of the game, as was the case in Phantasmagoria, Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh, Counter-Strike, Grand Theft Auto, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and South Park: The Stick of Truth.

All games that are released to the public are required to carry a certificate given by the USK (Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle – Voluntary Monitoring Organisation of Entertainment Software). The compulsory nature of the USK label was a consequence of the 2003 modification of the Jugendschutzgesetz or youth protection law. If the USK has not issued a label, a game may be placed upon the "index" of media harmful to youth kept by the BPjM (Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons). This results, at least, in a ban on promoting the game in any way and strict requirements for age checks. As prosecutors are inconsistent on whether reviews are a form of promotion this creates a chilling effect on games journalism for the affected titles. The strict requirements for age checks frequently lead to a game being taken off the market entirely, or only being made available in a cut version even for adults, due to economic considerations by developers/publishers. Independently, courts may also issue confiscation orders against games deemed to be especially egregious, resulting in an outright ban.

The 2003 changes to the Jugendschutzgesetz also announced an intent to extend the restrictions on the depiction of violence in video games, leaving open the possibility of banning any depiction of violence in video games, which was met by widespread outcry from the video game community in Germany. The then in power CDU/SPD coalition government announced an intention to enact this in 2005, but in November 2006 such restrictions were not enacted at that time.

See also

• Killerspiel [de]

Notes

1. Electrocosmos also does co-dev & apps.
2. Envision Entertainment got its staff from shuttered Phenomic Game Development (later: EA Phenomic).
3. Gentlymad Studios was acquired by publisher Assemble Entertainment in Oct 2017.
4. Joymania Entertainment's founders previously worked at Blue Byte Software GmbH. Their new studio was initially named "Ohlmann Peter & Sprys Adam GbR" in 1997-1998. Ex-Joymania Entertainment in 1998-2002.
5. Keen Games GmbH & Co. KG is the spiritual successor to Neon Studios with several of its co-founders.
6. Mad about Pandas UG's prior firm name 'kunst-stoff' also did co-dev, edutainment, gamification, AR/VR & interactive apps.
7. Reakktor Studios is a new revival after Reakktor Media went down in 2012.
8. Related Designs Software was renamed Ubisoft Mainz in 2019.
9. Games by the sole developer of Siactro were published by Diplodocus Games.
10. Coreplay's co-founder Peter Ohlmann previously worked at Blue Byte Software GmbH and early version of Joymania Entertainment.
11. NEON Software GmbH (aka. Neon Studios) was bought by JoWood in 2000, but then closed down due to latter's financial difficulties. Different co-founders/shareholders later founded ZEAL GmbH, 49Games GmbH, & Keen Games. One co-founder previously founded Kaiko GmbH.
12. Radon Labs' name was founded in 2000 by the staff of TerraTools GmbH as its name closed down.
13. Reakktor Media was called Century Interactive in 1991-1997; reakktor.com in 1997-2001.
14. Spieleentwicklungskombinat GmbH had an abbreviation as "SEK-Ost".
15. Westka was the interactive entertainment arm of German media companies Brainpool TV and VIVA Media.
16. Activision Blizzard Deutschland's had many other former names in 1993 to 2008 - brief examples: Sierra Coktel, CUC Software, Cendant Software, HAVAS Interactive, Vivendi Universal. Ceased publishing in 2010.
17. Aeria Games merged with gamigo in mid-2016.
18. Magic Bytes was a 1987 label of former German publisher, micro-partner Software GmbH, based in Gütersloh, Germany, which existed in 1986-1991. Their last published game was in 2000. The firm was revived in 2017 in Orlando, Florida with another office in Bielefeld, Germany.
19. NBG EDV was bought by Activision in 1997. Does distribution only since 2011.
20. Schwiezer System is parent of Century/Reakktor, Nord XR.
21. Activision Deutschland's former name was "Take Us! Marketing & Consulting GmbH" in 1995 to 1997-06. "Take Us!" Was bought by Activision in 1997. Publishing taken over by "Activision Blizzard Deutschland GmbH" in 2008.
22. The former names of "phenomedia" were "Art Department Werbeagentur GmbH" in 1993-1999 and "Phenomedia AG" in 1999-2004.
23. Most of Rainbow Arts people moved to or formed new companies in the late 1980s/early 1990s (e.g. Blue Byte, Factor 5, Spellbound Entertainment). Rainbow Arts became part of Softgold/Funsoft, then bought out by THQ in 1999.

References

1. "Final Report Gamescom 2018". gamescom.global. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
2. "Germany Games Market 2018" Archived 2018-10-26 at the Wayback Machine, New Zoo, July 25, 2018
3. "With 2.66 billions Euros of revenue, Germany is Europe's top video game market, new data by Newzoo and G.A.M.E." German Games Industry Association (GAME). 1 March 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
4. Mastrapa, Gus (17 August 2009). "Germany Becomes Europe's Largest Videogame Market". Wired.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
5. "Germany's Gaming Market". 31 October 2021. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
6. Kerr, Chris (23 April 2020). "The German game market grew by 6 percent in 2019 thanks to in-game spending". www.gamasutra.com. Archived from the original on 27 April 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
7. Tatár, Susanna (14 August 2014). "How Nvidia Will Be Going Big at Gamescom, the World's Biggest Gaming Show" (Press release). Nvidia. Archived from the original on July 30, 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
8. Patalong, Frank (January 11, 2002). "Wuselige Zeitreise". Der Spiegel (in German). Archived from the original on November 30, 2018.
9. "Platin für Anno 1503". n-tv (in German). December 26, 2002. Archived from the original on November 30, 2018.
10. Steininger, Stefan (January 21, 2004). "Anno 1503 schlägt Anno 1602". GamesMarkt (in German). Archived from the original on November 30, 2018.
11. "FIFA 17 verkauft eine Millionen Units auf PS4 in Deutschland". GamesMarkt (in German). May 15, 2017. Archived from the original on December 1, 2018.
12. "Teuerstes Spiel aus Deutschland". n-tv (in German). October 23, 2006. Archived from the original on January 1, 2010.
13. Cooper, Jonathan (2019-01-14), "The Game Development Environment", Game Anim Video Game Animation Explained, Boca Raton, FL: A K Peters/CRC Press, pp. 11–26, doi:10.1201/b22299-2, ISBN 978-1-315-10587-1, S2CID 68062426, retrieved 2022-04-30
14. "Assemble Entertainment acquires Gentlymad Studios". www.gameswirtschaft.de (in German). GamesWirtschaft. October 26, 2017. Archived from the original on December 4, 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
15. Madeline Ricchiuto (November 2, 2017). "Assemble Entertainment Has Established Their First Internal Development Studio". Bleeding Cool. Avatar Press. Archived from the original on January 13, 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
16. "North Data registry for phenomedia publishing GmbH". www.northdata.com. North Data Smart Research. August 29, 2022. Archived from the original on 26 October 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
17. "How Germans do escapism". Archived from the original on 2017-06-07. Retrieved 2017-06-02.

History of video games

v t e Chronology of video games Early history 1947–1972 1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020s 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Near future v t e Video game history by platform By platform Early mainframe games History of arcade video games Golden age Timeline History of video game consoles Crash of 1983 Console war History of mobile games By console generation First (1972–1980) Second (1976–1992) Third (1983–2003) Fourth (1987–2003) Fifth (1993–2005) Sixth (1998–2013) Seventh (2005–2017) Eighth (2012–) Ninth (2020–) v t e Video game genres List of video game genres Action Platformer Endless runner Platform fighter Shooter Arena First-person Hero Light gun Shoot 'em up Bullet hell Rail Twin-stick Tactical Third-person Survival Battle royale Survival horror Other Beat 'em up Hack and slash Fighting Platform fighter Maze Pac-Man clone Snake Stealth Action-adventure Grand Theft Auto clone Metroidvania Adventure Escape room Graphic adventure Interactive fiction Interactive film Visual novel Walking sim Digital tabletop Deck-building Roguelike deck-building Digital collectible card Puzzle Hidden object Sokoban Tile-matching Role-playing Action role-playing Looter shooter Soulslike Dungeon crawl MMORPG Monster-taming Roguelike Roguelike deck-building Tactical role-playing Simulation Life Dating Farming God Social Virtual pet CMS Business City-building Government Sports Fishing Racing Kart racing Sim racing Vehicle Flight simulation Combat Lunar Lander Space Submarine simulator Train simulator Vehicular combat Other Falling-sand Immersive sim Strategy 4X Auto battler MOBA Real-time strategy Time management Real-time tactics Tactical role-playing Tower defense Turn-based strategy Turn-based tactics Artillery Wargame Grand strategy Other genres Cozy Fitness Horror Survival horror Incremental Music Rhythm Non-game Party Photography Programming Typing Related concepts Themes Advergame Bishōjo Christian Comedy Educational Girls Licensed Otome Sexual Eroge Nonviolent Personalized Sci-fi Serious Art Climate change News Player modes Multiplayer Co-op MMO PVP Single-player Production AAA Indie Doujin soft Fan game Design Casual Hypercasual Emergent gameplay FMV Gacha Kaizo Masocore Nonlinear gameplay Open world Sandbox Side-scrolling Twitch gameplay Vertically scrolling Other Minigame Toys-to-life Video game clone Video game modding Video game remake v t e Video games by country Africa Ghana Kenya Nigeria South Africa Americas Latin America Brazil Colombia Canada United States Asia Bangladesh China India Indonesia Iran Japan South Korea Malaysia Philippines Russia Thailand Turkey Europe Belgium Czech Republic Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Lithuania Netherlands Norway Poland Russia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Oceania Australia New Zealand

• Video gaming in Germany