Develop

Tiga in campaign to promote the UK video games industry

May 28th 2008

Tiga is working with Elspa and a number of important UK based games development studios in a campaign to promote the country’s games development industry to Government, Parliament and the media.

The campaign - Games Up? - is designed to highlight the opportunities that the video games industry offers to the UK’s economy and society and to alert policy makers to the competitive threats that could stymie the industry in the future if ignored.

• The UK was the third largest producer of video games in the world until 2006 when Canada, which provides massive government subsidises to its games industry, drove the UK into fourth place.

• There has been a 15% fall in science graduates over the last decade, contributing to skill shortages in the video games industry.

Richard Wilson, CEO of Tiga, said:

“The story of UK games development has been one of success for the last 25 years. We have the largest video games industry in Europe; we make a positive contribution to the country’s balance of payments; and we sustain 10,000 highly skilled jobs around the country.

“However, our industry faces challenges that can no longer be ignored: in particular, heavily subsidised competition from abroad and skill shortages at home.

“Tiga will work with other key players in the video games industry through the Games Up? campaign to argue for a tax break for games production and for measures to improve the quantity and quality of graduates relevant to the games industry.

“With the right policy environment in place UK games developers can play a leading role in the global video games industry of the future.”

End

Notes to editors:

1. Tiga is the national trade association that represents games developers in the UK and in Europe. We have 155 members, the majority of whom are games developers, but we also have outsourcing companies and technology businesses as members who provide services to games developers. Tiga’s vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business.

2. The Games Up? campaign is backed by Tiga and Elspa and sponsored by the following companies: Activision, Blitz, Codemasters, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Exient, Frontier Developments, Microsoft Games Studios, NCSoft, Real Time Worlds, Sony Computer Entertainment and Ubisoft.

3. For further information, please contact: Dr Richard Wilson, Tiga CEO on: 0845 0941095; Mob: 07875 939643; or: Email: richard.wilson@tiga.org.