Rockfish scores €8M grant

Rockfish didn’t just get a subsidy. It got €8 million from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space to build the next game in the Everspace series, and the money will be paid out over five years. (gamespress.com) That is a record-sized award for a German game studio under this fund, and it is tied to a single project rather than a general studio bailout. Rockfish said the grant is for the next entry in its space-shooter franchise. (gamespress.com) Rockfish is not a giant publisher with hundreds of staff. The Hamburg studio says it rebooted in 2014, raised $475,000 on Kickstarter for the first Everspace, and later sold more than 1 million copies of that game across personal computer, Xbox, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. (rockfishgames.com) That history explains why this grant is unusual. Germany is backing a studio that already proved it can turn a niche space combat game into an international business, then use that success to move up from a smaller roguelike shooter to the bigger open-world Everspace 2. (rockfishgames.com) The ministry behind the grant is part of a wider German push to keep more game development inside the country. GamesIndustry.biz reported on April 9, 2026 that Germany had expanded its annual games fund to €125 million, which puts Rockfish’s €8 million award in the top tier of what the program can do. (gamesindustry.biz) For a studio like Rockfish, five-year public funding changes the math of making a sequel. Instead of rushing to sign a publisher early or cutting scope to fit cash on hand, the team can staff up around a longer production schedule and keep more control over the project. (gamespress.com, gamesindustry.biz) Rockfish’s own hiring page already points to that next step. The studio is recruiting a project manager for an “undisclosed Unreal Engine 5 project,” which is the game engine made by Epic Games that many studios use for high-end personal computer and console releases. (rockfishgames.com) The company also has room to grow into that grant. Rockfish says its Hamburg studio was rebuilt for up to 50 team members, while German trade coverage in March said the team had grown to more than 30 employees. (rockfishgames.com, gameswirtschaft.de) So the headline is not just that one studio got paid. Germany is using public money to help a mid-sized developer stay independent long enough to make a larger sequel, and Rockfish is the clearest sign yet that Berlin wants local studios competing on global budgets instead of surviving on contract work and small experiments. (gamesindustry.biz, gamespress.com)