Spanish government axes $2.4 million in funding for indie devs

A €2 million ($2.42 million) grant slated to fund Spanish indie developers is now dead in the water.

According to a report from El Español (translated by Polygon), Àlvaro Nadal, Spain's minister of energy, tourism, and digital agenda, cancelled the grant for unspecified reasons. The decision comes just one week before a presentation by DEV, a Spanish videogame association, on the state of the industry. 

Funded by the European Union, the grant would have given €50,000 to €150,000 to 20 different developers, with a particular focus on small studios of five or fewer members working on their first game. 

While Spain isn't the world's biggest games market, as NewZoo reports, it is a major player as the fourth largest market in the EU and the ninth largest in the world. You're probably familiar with some of the country's studios, too. Tequila Works released Rime and The Sexy Brutale last year alone, and newcomer Fourattic is now working on cartoonish adventure game Crossing Souls following its successful Kickstarter. BeautiFun Games released Nihilumbra in 2013, and has a top-down puzzle game in the pipes for 2018.