If you haven’t heard about the Hamburg initiative, they you’re not in the industry, or at least not in the industry in Germany. This city supports its game industry members like no other that I have heard of.
GameCity Hamburg helped a slew of Hamburg-based companies present themselves at GC Leipzig. The companies included:
As I have friends among this group it was cool to see that they have so much support from their local government. The initiative is half public and half private and Hamburg@work now consists of around 360 companies. In fact it’s such an attractive business atmosphere that Google just recently opened offices in the city.
The initiative truly listens to what the members need and helps in various ways including:
- Co-finance projects and show presence such as the presence at GC Leipzig
- Annual 100,000 Euro prize to a first-time game developer
- Flexible office leasing so companies can move in a matter of weeks instead of months
Plus they have brilliant representatives including Stefan Klein the Project Director who managed to give me all of this information in just a matter of a few minutes as he happened to be passing by.
In my opinion there are many cities in Germany that want to be the hub of video game development but there is one obvious choice where you want to be if you want to start a game company. That obvious choice is Hamburg where the city will welcome you and your start up business with open arms. So all you indie game developers in Germany might want to take a quick trip up north and see what Hamburg has to offer you.
The initiative is on the web at www.hamburg-media.net and www.hamburg-economy.de where you can find out more information. And remember, when Hamburg becomes the central point of games development in Germany, you heard it here first folks.
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This is by far one of the coolest articles I have read in a long time.