In her comments, Merkel highlighted the economic and social importance of the digital games that are on show at Gamescom, which this year is also the most political in its nine-year history.
Apart from a special election forum to be attended by representatives of the major parties standing in the September 24 election, several of the games on show at the five-day trade fair have a strong political message including tackling radical right-wing groups.
Computer games are “cultural assets, innovation engines and economic factors of the utmost importance”, the chancellor said in her opening speech, describing the industry “a strong pillar of the German economy”.
The digital gaming community posted a turnover of more than €1bn ($1.17bn) in the first half of 2017.
Merkel’s government has also called on German companies in general to step up plans for boosting the digitalisation of their operations.
But in addition, the average age of German gamers is 35, which is also a group of voters that is of special interest to political parties such as Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats.
“Gamescom is more political than ever this year,” said Felix Falk, who heads up the German digital games industry association (BIU).
