Blitz Games Studios visit
Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms and Labour candidate James Plaskitt call in on Leamington-based developer.
21 APRIL 2010 LEAMINGTON SPA, UK. Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister for Digital Britain Stephen Timms and James Plaskitt, Labour candidate for Warwick and Leamington visited Blitz Games Studios today.
Having supported the industry for many years, Mr Timms was interested to see for himself the inner workings of a leading video game developer. Blitz Games Studios was seen as a great example due to its diversity and size.
Mr Timms said: “It’s been great to come and see such a fantastically creative and innovative company first hand. Blitz played a key role in making the case for the tax break announced by the Chancellor in the Budget and I look forward to seeing the growth of the British games industry in future years.”
Mr Plaskitt has been local MP for the last 13 years, a period of time that has seen employment of video game professionals grow rapidly in his constituency. He has always been supportive of this local creative industry. He said: “Blitz is a great local company that I’ve enjoyed watching grow over the years. It’s always exciting to come and visit. It’s a hub of innovation and the Olivers Twins are full of great business ideas. They have played an integral role in lobbying myself and government for industry tax breaks and I look forward to seeing the British games industry go from strength to strength over the coming years.
The Oliver Twins have been instrumental in lobbying the government for favourable tax changes through the trade body TIGA. CEO Philip Oliver says: “There is still more to be done in this area. Building our relationship with these key political players and helping them understand the deeper issues faced by our industry can only help as we continue, along with TIGA, to lobby to improve the competitiveness of UK game developers in a global market.”
Media enquiries:
Contact Debbie Henderson, Blitz Games Studios’ Assistant PR Manager at dhenderson@blitzgamesstudios.com.
About Blitz Games Studios:
Blitz Games Studios is based in Leamington Spa and was founded in 1990 by industry veterans Andrew and Philip Oliver and now has more than 200 staff. Its six divisions encompass mature titles (Volatile Games), Serious Games (TruSim), family titles (Blitz Games), licensable middleware (BlitzTech), downloadable games (Blitz Arcade) and its education division (Blitz Academy).www.BlitzGamesStudios.com