Rockfish Games lands €8m grant as Germany boosts game industry support

Rocketfish Games has been awarded €8 million from the German government’s newly-expanded €125 million games fund to support the development of the next game in the Everspace shooter franchise. Launched in 2020, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) funding program offers grants covering up to 50% of game production and prototype development costs. Grants range from €300,000 to €8 million per project, depending on size.

Rockfish Games’ €8 million grant is the largest awarded from the fund, and will be distributed over five years. The Hamburg-based studio will use the funding to develop the next Everspace title; the most recent release Everspace 2: Wrath of the Ancients, launched in 2023, was partially funded by the BMFTR.

GamesIndustry.biz spoke with Rockfish Games CEO and co-founder Michael Schade about the grant program, its impact on the German games industry, and how it’s planning to spend the money.

The funding covers nearly 45% of development costs for the next Everspace title, which has a €20 million budget. “This means we can maintain our status as a fully independent developer and publisher of our own titles while self-funding the remaining portion of the project’s cost,” says Schade.

“As we went through the grant submission process, we were simultaneously working on the prototype for our next project. This prototype played a key role in securing such a substantial grant by demonstrating our team’s ambition and technical capability through the introduction of several brand-new features to the Everspace series.”

Rockfish submitted a quarterly milestone plan overseen by DLR Projektträger (DLR-PT), Germany’s national research centre, which monitors the developer’s progress.

“You’d be surprised at the level of gaming industry knowledge at both the DLR-PT and the BMFTR,” says Schade, who describes the conversations with policymakers and coordinators as “at the same level as a top-tier publisher or platform holder” and said the company received “good feedback and intelligent questions about our production process and timeline that showed experience and understanding of the industry.”

How to spend it

The grant provides “long-term stability” for Rockfish as it expands the Everspace franchise and to begin implementing raises, team training, marketing efforts, and operational tasks as it grows from a small to mid-sized studio.

“In the last six months, we’ve added ten team members to Rockfish Games – a mix of full-time employees and experienced developers from co-dev studios with expertise in specific areas,” says Schade. “Our aim is to keep the team within a certain size, and it’s important that we onboard people at a manageable pace to maintain a positive studio culture and ensure we integrate every new team member successfully.” The funding is also paying for Rockfish to upskill current staff, which Schade says will manifest in an improved cinematic process in the next game.

“Independence allows us to make choices that best fit the studio and team, react to fans’ wants and market needs faster”

Most importantly for Schade, the grant enables Rockfish to remain independent and for it to retain control over the development and direction of its games. “Independence allows us to make choices that best fit the studio and team, react to fans’ wants and market needs faster, and create a title that is closest to our vision,” he says. “There are many stories to tell and experiences to be had within the universe we’ve created.” He takes care to say this doesn’t mean the firm is “launching into the production of multiple titles or cross-media exploration,” it does “allow us to consider what those possibilities may look like in the future.”

“Funding like this also means we’re able to ensure we stay on the forefront of new technology,” a freedom that “strengthens our position to negotiate better deals, secure stronger platform visibility, and continue to represent Germany as one of the premier developers of space games worldwide.”

Game Pass support

While Rockfish would not have been in “dire straits” without this funding, Schade asserts the studio could not have fully realised its vision. “Crowdfunding, working with a publisher, exploring funding sources from outside the industry, or simply making a smaller title could have been on the table. We would not have been in dire straits; it was a crossroads for the project and the studio, where compromises would have been necessary.”

For both Everspace and Everspace 2, Rockfish used crowdfunding to launch the projects. But Schade highlights other important avenues, such as Xbox Game Pass and early access.

He says Xbox Game Pass supported Everspace 2’s “production runway,” enabling more content and polish across platforms. While the role of Game Pass in its next project is undecided, Rockfish remains optimistic due to its strong relationship with Xbox. As for Early Access, Schade says it “has been an incredibly important part of our development process.”

“Having immensely valuable feedback from fans willing to invest their time, energy, and money in a work-in-progress title helped shape our previous game, and I can hardly imagine us not doing that again.”

Why AA beats AAA

“With each year, Germany becomes an even stronger hub for video game development, especially in the indie and AA space. The new grant program and long-term commitment to the video game industry support this continued growth, creating a space where small and mid-sized companies can begin and thrive.”

Schade sees the oversight requirements that come with the funding as an advantage, too, saying that the approval process “pushes teams to plan more efficiently, setting projects up for greater success.”

“Government support creates a space where small and mid-sized companies can begin and thrive.”

“By ensuring qualifying projects meet certain criteria such as minimum investment size, team experience, cultural requirements, and other factors, the revised grant program is likely to see a higher success rate in projects both commercially and artistically.”

He believes, perhaps not surprisingly, that the fund’s support of AA studios will provide a direct financial return to the government. “By building a grant program, the policymakers behind this government project have wisely chosen to incubate small teams and mid-sized studios like ourselves. This creates a pool of high-paying jobs spread out amongst many companies, fosters the development of new technology, and showcases German creativity on the global stage.”

“Currently, Germany has a significant number of studios in mobile, indie, and AA which is very healthy. There is a certain amount of prestige desire within the local industry, to see one or more AAA studios take root in Germany. I may be biased, but with its lower investment cost and creative flexibility, AA is a strong way for the industry to focus, and this grant program is in line with that.”