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Prominent visit to Ubisoft Düsseldorf: Economics Minister Mona Neubaur visits the largest games studio in North Rhine-Westphalia.
With around 450 employees, Ubisoft Düsseldorf is one of the largest game developers in the republic. Off the build-up play mark The settlers As part of the global Ubisoft network, the team works on titles such as Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Rainbow Six: Siege and Assassin's Creed Nexus VR.
Yesterday, Wednesday, NRW Economics Minister Mona Neubaur (Greens), who is also the state's Deputy Prime Minister, took a look behind the scenes. The studio tour was led by Managing Director Benedikt Grindel and Public Affairs Director Karsten Lehmann, who of course also spoke to the political guest about the economic framework for national and international game manufacturers.
Economics Minister Mona Neubaur: “The games industry is a growth market, an engine of innovation and a driver of digital transformation. On the one hand, the technologies developed here ensure first-class entertainment and, on the other hand, offer many sectors of the economy an important basis for new, future-oriented business models. Games developers from all over the world have found a good home in North Rhine-Westphalia. This is a strong signal for a competitive location and highly qualified jobs in our country.”
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Managing Director Benedikt Grindel pours some water into the wine and calls for further efforts: “North Rhine-Westphalia is a highly attractive location for us. Nevertheless, there is a lot to be done so that games development in Germany can be successful overall. Only with international competitiveness can large productions be created here that, with future-oriented job profiles, tie up valuable know-how at the location. NRW can and should be the driving force here.”
North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the federal states with comparatively generous funding pots, which are primarily invested in projects by indie studios and medium-sized companies.
The federal government’s games funding is actually intended for larger companies like Ubisoft: At Gamescom 2023, Grindel accepted a symbolic check for €5.7 million from Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) – the highest amount to date for a single project. The money will be used to develop a new game at Ubisoft Mainz. You can find current developments on the status quo of computer games funding in this article.
With almost 1,000 employees, Ubisoft is one of the three most important employers in the games industry in German-speaking countries, alongside Embracer and Nintendo. In addition to the German headquarters in Düsseldorf, the listed French publisher operates additional studios in Berlin and Mainz as well as the mobile games studio Kolibri Games.