Gaming has a home in Cologne.

Cologne is one of the most renowned locations for the games industry in the world and one of Germany's video games strongholds. More than seventy companies in the sector employ approximately 1,600 people in the city. On account of the growing fascination with computer and video games, the games industry has become the sub-sector of the cultural and creative industries (CCI) with the highest turnover and value creation – also in Cologne.

70.00 Companies
1600.00 Employees
370000 Annual Gamescom visitors

Driver for progress

This growing industry stimulates innovation in other sectors of the economy as well. For example, the games industry functions as a valuable platform for testing and further developing innovations in the sphere of artificial intelligence. Simulation technologies are also acquiring greater relevance in the education sector or for medical applications.

Electronic Arts (EA), one of the world's largest developers and publishers of computer and video games, has its seat in Cologne's Rheinauhafen area. ESL Gaming GmbH, the world's largest organiser of national and international e-sports competitions, is also located in the city. However, the Cologne games ecosystem consists mainly of a large number of small and medium-sized developer studios and service providers: from the browser games manufacturer Bright Future to the full-service provider RockAByte to the serious game specialists takomat GmbH and Ingenious Knowledge GmbH.

- KölnBusiness
Gamescom is the world's largest computer and video games fair.

International relevance

As a trade fair and exhibition centre, Cologne is also the location for important meetings of the games industry. Gamescom attracts approximately 370,000 national and international visitors to the city each year, making it the world's biggest trade fair for computer and video games. There are also events such as the developer conference Devcom, which is linked to Gamescom, the Indie Game Fest, the intel.Extreme Masters Cologne, one of the largest e-sports events in the world, and the presentation of the German Developer Award.

Part of the Cologne games scene is also the city's well-known academic environment. In step with actual practice, the Cologne Game Lab (CGL) at TH Köln offers future-oriented training in Bachelor's and Master's courses for authors and designers of digital games. With the CGL Incubator, the institute also supports students in establishing their own start-ups in the industry. Also based in Cologne: the SAE Institute, one of the leading private universities in the games industry in Germany with study programmes such as "Game Art & 3D Animation" and "Game Programming". 

- KölnBusiness
A large e-sports event in Cologne's Lanxess Arena.
© ESL Gaming | Helena Kristiansson

Services provided by KölnBusiness for the games industry

  • Support and development for projects to enhance Cologne as a games location
  • Organization of industry meetups, networking activities and other events
  • Contact person for companies
  • Support for startup companies
  • Pilot function for all services of KölnBusiness (e.g. room search, corporate contacts, subsidies) and the city council

 

Information in German

Download: sector overview

Overviews of selected players within the ecosystem
  • Sector overview Games PDF | 791 KB

Please get in touch

Christoph Kohlhaas

Innovation manager gaming & e-sports

Business Development