2026 Funding Flash: Berlin and Bavaria Lead State Game Grants Ahead of Elections

Five German states are heading into elections this year, and their game-industry communities are watching funding flows closely—especially because state grants are often structured as repayable support once a project clears the profit threshold. A new “funding flash” snapshot for 2026 highlights how unevenly development money is currently being allocated across the country, with Berlin, Bavaria, and North Rhine-Westphalia planning the largest seven-figure budgets.

2026 funding snapshot: which states are putting the most into game development

The figures below cover only money directed straight into the creation of concrete concepts, prototypes, and market-ready games. Broader ecosystem support—such as events, awards, festival and conference backing, consulting, esports programming, prizes, coworking spaces, and similar services—is acknowledged as part of local efforts, but it is not reflected in this table.

• Berlin: 2,173,000 € (2025: 2,528,000 €; breakdown: 707,000 € in January, 606,000 € in April, 860,000 € in July)
• Bavaria: 1,903,000 € (2025: 2,359,000 €; breakdown: 1,032,000 € in March, 871,000 € in July)
• North Rhine-Westphalia: 1,802,944 € (2025: 3,509,060 €; breakdown: 1,200,000 € in March, 602,944 € in July)
• Saxony: 917,000 € (2025: 310,000 €; breakdown: 430,000 € in January, 390,000 € in April, 97,000 € in June)
• Baden-Württemberg: 668,000 € (2025: 697,742 €; payout: March)
• Niedersachsen: 489,790 € (2025: 654,870 €; payout: April)
• Hamburg: 308,000 € (2025: 520,000 €; payout: May)
• Hessen: 304,151 € (2025: 296,300 €; payout: July)
• Rhineland-Palatinate: 200,000 € (2025: 415,304 €; payout: June)
• Thuringia: 199,000 € (2025: 60,000 €; breakdown: 100,000 € in January, 99,000 € in June)
• Saxony-Anhalt: 157,000 € (2025: 150,000 €; payout: June)

No allocations are listed in the current calendar year for Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Saarland. The 2025 comparison amounts given are 68,674 € for Schleswig-Holstein, 15,377.60 € for Bremen, and 0 € for Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Saarland.

Why the structure matters: repayable support vs. federal funding

For startups and smaller studios, regional support is framed as especially important because they often lack the own-funds needed to access the federal computer-games funding program, which has a stated budget lower limit of 300,000 €. In contrast, state-level aid can include subsidies for concepts and prototypes without a repayment obligation.

However, the article emphasizes a key difference in how most state subsidies are drafted: unlike federal support (which does not involve reimbursement by its nature), the grants from states are “nearly always” issued as conditionally repayable loans—except for concept-stage funding. If a supported game reaches the break-even point, the repayment mechanism can trigger funds returning to the system so they can be reused by new applicants.

Election-year attention and the agencies handling games funding

This year’s vote calendar includes five states whose local game communities—Rhineland-Palatinate, Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, Saxony-Anhalt, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern—are hoping for clearer signals on regional support for games projects.

Funding responsibilities are distributed among different bodies across the country, including media boards, creative industry agencies, and film or economic ministries. The listed points of contact for games-related grants include the following:

• Baden-Württemberg: MFG Kreativ / Games BW
• Bavaria: Film- und Fernseh-Fonds Bayern (FFF)
• Berlin: Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (MBB)
• Brandenburg: Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (MBB)
• Bremen: Nordmedia
• Hamburg: Gamecity Hamburg
• Hessen: Wirtschaftsministerium / WiBa
• Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: (not specified in the provided material)
• Niedersachsen: Nordmedia
• North Rhine-Westphalia: Film- und Medienstiftung NRW
• Rhineland-Palatinate: Medienförderung RLP
• Saarland: Wirtschaftsministerium
• Saxony: Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM)
• Saxony-Anhalt: Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM)
• Schleswig-Holstein: Wirtschaftsministerium
• Thuringia: Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM)

What to watch next: whether states increase or rebalance their development budgets during the year’s election cycle, and how the repayment conditions—especially once projects reach break-even—continue to shape which studios can take risks on prototypes moving toward market-ready releases. The numbers referenced are based on published funding decisions made by the relevant committees.