German games abroad: “Slightly bungling” but not without a chance
Germany likes to see itself as an export nation. Yet very few games produced in this country are international hits. That doesn’t have to be a disadvantage.
German games are considered ambitious, but not always well realised. What is the reason for this?
Germans love work. According to a 1991 study, people from the USA associate this attitude in particular with Germany. In a more recent survey, Malaysian students learning German as a foreign language also name “hard-working” and “disciplined” as typical German characteristics. In addition, they associate the country with cars, engineering, the National Socialist era and beer. When it comes to famous personalities, students particularly think of football stars and recognised scientists.
Art and culture are hardly mentioned in such surveys, if at all. For many, Germany is a country of carmakers who sip an after-work beer in the evening while watching football and don’t polish the last sentence of their globally hotly anticipated novel. The economic figures prove this.
While the entire German economy before the Corona pandemic turned over more than 1.3 trillion euros with exported machine parts, motor vehicles and confectionery, the domestic cultural scene is mostly stuck within its own four walls. According to corresponding analyses, German film generates just seven per cent of its turnover abroad. In music, the figure is ten per cent, and for books, the export quota is nine per cent.
Games like Anno 1800 can appeal to a worldwide target group – thanks to digital distribution.
Video games have it easier in that respect. Thanks to digital distribution networks, a German developer studio can offer its product all over the world relatively easily. Strategy games, role-playing games and first-person shooters are understood game mechanically all over the globe.
According to a survey by the Hamburg Media School, German developer studios generated 47 per cent of their total turnover outside their home country in 2018. The share has been constant at a fairly even 50-to-50 level for several years now. This makes it even more international than the French industry, which only makes about 40 per cent of its turnover abroad.
However, it cannot compete with Canada. Thanks to state support, blockbusters like Assassin’s Creed and FIFA are produced there every year. The export quota has been as high as 90 per cent in some years.
The technical class of the developer studio in particular has enabled each of the three Crysis parts to hold their own.
The good figures, however, disguise a similar problem that the other German cultural industries also have to contend with. There are hardly any international hits that put creative exclamation marks on Germany as a cultural location.
Sure, the first Sacred and Far Cry sell over two million copies in 2004 and manage to sell several hundred thousand units in the USA, which is otherwise so difficult for German studios to crack. Developer Crytek then finds a similar number of willing buyers with Crysis and its successors.
According to publisher 2K, Spec Ops: The Line is a commercial disappointment shortly after its release. However, the courageous shooter from Berlin has gained enormous relevance in recent years and is repeatedly mentioned in discussions about politically charged games.
So German games are definitely noticed internationally. But there is a stigma attached to them.
TAGS Crysis Remastered,Article,Gernab Games Abroad
