Mobile game studios in Germany: Berlin, Hamburg and the rest
Germany has 21 mobile studios in this directory, split between Berlin with 10 and Hamburg with 5. InnoGames, Wooga and Goodgame Studios are the anchors, all of them long established. German studios sit on the highest combined corporate tax rate in western Europe, close to 30% once trade tax is counted.
Türkiye refunds half of what a software company or game studio spends on advertising, app store commissions and hosting when it sells to customers abroad, and up to 70% when those customers are in one of twenty target markets. It is paid in cash, against invoices you have already settled. Try it with your own numbers.
01Where are the 21 studios in Germany?
21 in total. 15 of them are in Berlin and Hamburg, which have their own directories, and the 6 listed underneath are everywhere else in Germany.
| Studio | City | Founded | People |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travian GamesA prominent German video game development company based in Munich, specializing in browser-based… | Munich | 2005 | 140 |
| upjers GmbHA prominent German developer and publisher of free-to-play online games and mobile applications. | Bamberg | 2006 | 69 |
| HandyGamesTHQ Nordic Mobile GmbH is an international game publisher and developer based in Giebelstadt, Germany. | Giebelstadt | 2000 | 45 |
| Sixteen Tons EntertainmentA German video game developer founded in 1993 by Ralph Stock. | Tuebingen | 1993 | 19 |
| b-interaktiveWe love mobile games and our mission is to share this passion with you through our products. | Dortmund | 2011 | 11 |
| Flaregames | F2P Mobile Games PublisherA mobile games publisher based in Karlsruhe, Germany, with additional studios in Frankfurt and Tampere. | Karlsruhe | 2011 | 6 |
Headcounts are third-party estimates and companies count staff differently. Apollo company data, exported 20 August 2026
02Why do studios base themselves in Germany?
What keeps them there
- Two real clusters rather than one. Berlin attracts international staff, Hamburg holds the older free-to-play companies, and both have twenty years of accumulated experience.
- Engineering depth from the technical universities, and a hiring market that extends across the EU without visa friction.
- A federal games funding programme aimed at development costs, which has run in stops and starts but exists.
- Domestic scale. Germany is the largest games market in Europe, so a studio can test at home before going wider.
| Combined corporate income tax | 29.8%Trade tax is charged by the municipality on top of the federal corporate rate, so the exact figure varies by city.source |
|---|
Germany gives a studio depth of talent and charges properly for it. Payroll costs are high, notice periods are long, and the combined tax rate is the highest of any country in this directory except a handful of edge cases.
The federal games fund covers development. Nothing covers the marketing, and in Germany the marketing is usually being paid for out of after-tax profit that has already lost close to thirty percent.
What Türkiye would pay back on your spending
Türkiye runs a government programme that refunds part of what a software company or game studio spends on reaching customers abroad. It covers advertising, app store and platform commissions, and hosting. The refund is paid in cash against invoices the company has already settled, so it does not depend on the company making a profit. The standard rate is 50%, and it rises to 70% when the customers being targeted are in one of the twenty countries on the Turkish Ministry of Trade's target list.
Put your own yearly figures in below. The rates and the annual caps come from the same file as our full calculator, and the total updates as you type.
03Questions we get asked
Berlin or Hamburg?
Berlin for international hiring and for anything close to publishing or investment. Hamburg for experienced free-to-play operators, since InnoGames and Goodgame have been training them there for two decades.
Does the German games fund pay for user acquisition?
No. It is aimed at prototype and production costs. Marketing is treated as a commercial cost you carry.
What does trade tax do to the rate?
It is set by the municipality and lands the combined rate near 30% in most cities, which is why the headline federal rate on its own understates the bill.
Why a consultancy keeps a studio directory
CyberScope Solutions is an Istanbul consultancy that manages Türkiye's IT export incentive claims for software companies and game studios. We track where studios are because the question we are asked most often is who else has done this, and a list is a better answer than an assurance.
- Every figure is sourced. Each number links to the page it came from and carries the date we last checked it.
- We do the filing. Claims run through DYS, the ministry's own system, and we handle the evidence pack, the deadlines and the follow-up questions.
- You find out early if it is not for you. The first call is thirty minutes and we will say plainly if your spend pattern does not suit the programme.
Turn that number into money
Send us the rough shape of your spend. You get back what it is worth, what setting it up involves, and how fast the first claim can go in. Companies already operating here treat this as routine, and the six month window means the clock is running on invoices you have already paid.
- A reply from a person within one working day
- No mailing list, no drip sequence
- Thirty minutes, and you keep the numbers either way
Got it.
We will read it properly and reply within a working day. If you would rather get it over with now, pick a time that suits you.
Book a 30 minute call04Where these numbers come from
- https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/eu/corporate-income-tax-rates-europe/ checked 2026-08-20
- Apollo company data, exported 20 August 2026 checked 2026-08-20