Game companies line up for pandemic relief loans

Developers take advantage of a US program that will forgive loans for retaining staff, deadline to apply is August 8

News by Brendan Sinclair Managing Editor

Published on July 10, 2020

While some corners of the games industry have seen their businesses improve with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, others aren't so fortunate.

As part of its COVID-19 response, the United States launched the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to incentive employers to keep staff on the payroll, and a GamesIndustry.biz review of publicly released data from the program identified more than 75 game companies who have combined for a minimum of $30 million in loans.

Under the terms of the program, the loans carry an interest rate of 1% and can be forgiven if the borrowing businesses spend at least 60% of the money on payroll. There are no fees or collateral required.

There's still time for developers to take advantage of the program, as the deadline to apply for the PPP is August 8. More information is available on the US Small Business Administration website.

As of June 30, nearly 4.9 million PPP loans have been approved for a total of more than $521 billion loaned. Loans of $150,000 or less made up 86.5% of the loans approved, and 27.2% of the money loaned.

A list of games industry businesses we identified in the PPP data (minus distributors, retailers, and arcade operators) and the dollar range of their loans follows below. At least one of the companies below, Star Theory Games, has shut down since receiving its loan.