“Import of ideas”: How to strengthen the games industry?

For countries like Canada or Poland, the games industry is a strong branch of the economy. Germany could still learn a lot. The “Import of Ideas” podcast looks for ideas and possible role models abroad.

From the point of view of many, computer games are a central part of everyday life and gamers are no longer just nerdy kids in the basement. A large part of society worldwide now plays on the console, the PC or on the mobile phone.

According to a 2021 industry survey, there are around 2.7 billion gamers worldwide. Ascending trend. More than half of them are said to be women. The gaming industry should now be worth well over 300 billion US dollars.

Number of German developer studios increased

Germany would also like to have a piece of this cake. The grand coalition had already launched the first nationwide funding program in 2019. At that time, 50 million euros per year had been planned. And the coalition agreement of the traffic light government also says: “We want to strengthen the games location and stabilize the funding”.

The funding is showing its first effects: the number of developer studios in Germany has grown by 26 percent within two years, according to the German Games Association. And yet it will probably be some time before Germany can keep up on the world market.

Cultural mediation through games in Poland

Other countries have been strengthening their games industry for decades. In Poland, state funding began shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the meantime, development studios have established themselves in the neighboring country that produce worldwide blockbuster games. Above all, CD Project, which has enjoyed great success in recent years with titles such as the fantasy game “The Witcher” and the dystopian game “Cyperpunk 2077”.

The Polish government and society value and promote their gaming industry. In addition to the purely economic support, there is also money from the culture pot for games that represent Polish culture and way of life. So does “The Witcher”, which is based on a Polish book series. Other Polish computer games have even made it into the educational canon. For example the war critical game “This war of mine”.

Broad training against the shortage of skilled workers in Canada

Canada has the third largest gaming industry in the world. Large corporations from all over the world set up headquarters in the North American country. Because Canada introduced tax breaks for the gaming industry years ago in addition to funding programs. This strengthens the market: Since 2019, the video game industry has grown by 23 percent.

In addition, a lot of money and energy was put into the training of urgently needed specialists. In the province of Ontario alone, around 3,000 students graduate in game development from almost 50 universities every year. The training includes subjects ranging from computer science and animation to history.

Many students are recruited by companies while they are still studying. Despite the numerous training places and trained specialists, the labor market is not yet saturated. On the contrary: the Canadian government is even trying to attract more skilled workers from abroad.

Search for ideas in the tagesschau podcast

For many questions that arise again and again in everyday life, there are guaranteed to be good ideas, possible role models and solutions somewhere in the world: How better to deal with sharply rising energy prices? What to do to eat healthier? Why do people in other countries sometimes live longer?

The foreign podcast of the tagesschau looks for and finds them – together with the correspondents in the 30 foreign studios of the ARD. Ideas import wants to broaden the view beyond the proverbial box and provide new input in political and social debates with fresh ideas.

Idea import appears every second Friday. You can listen to the podcast at any time at home or on the go on your smartphone – every second Friday morning you will find a new episode on our website, in the ARD audio library and on numerous other podcast platforms.