Enlarge image (© mygaming.co.za) The Game Developers Conference, which has been revealing the newest developments in gaming technology since 1988, was held this year in downtown San Francisco’s  Moscone Center on March 5-9.  The usual big names – luminaries such as NVIDIA, Microsoft, Google, and Sony – were represented, but various others grabbed the attention of curious gaming enthusiasts at the convention.  Over a dozen of these impressive exhibitors were companies with German headquarters. Among them, Wooga, the third largest social games developer, the interactive entertainment innovator Crytek, and the online-game creator Bigpoint excited the GDC’s attendees. Bigpoint is a shining example of German gaming companies enjoying great success upon establishing facilities in the Bay area. Its San Francisco office now employs 150 gaming experts, focusing on free-to-play games for browser, mobile and social platforms. At the GDC, Bigpoint chose to display its newest addition to its impressive diversified portfolio of high quality games: The Game of Thrones, based on the HBO series. Bigpoint’s path to success in the gaming industry reflects a recurring trend in German technology startups’ strategies to promote their innovations to a global market: The innovation’s conception and early development often originates at the companies’ headquarters in Germany. Once the company is confident its idea is fit for the market, it often chooses to continue the project at US tech hubs (Silicon Valley, Seattle, LA) where networks among clients, investors and producers are already well established and product promotion is facilitated Enlarge image (© pcgames.de)

German companies’ appearance at the conference was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, which organized a spacious joint exhibition area to showcase Germany’s gaming industry. A networking event organized by the German Consulate General at the sidelines of the GDC brought together talent from all over the world.