Channel 4 investing £1 million in Dundee

UK terrestrial programmer Channel 4 has commissioned three of Dundee's studios to create games based on some of its most successful programs, spending £1 million in the city in total.

The investment, reported by Herald Scotland, means that the channel has spent a total of 10 per cent of its creative budget in Dundee this year. Tag Games and Dynamo Games will be creating titles based on Channel 4 shows, while Headlight Scotland, a TV production unit, has been commissioned to create a three-part series on the games industry in Dundee.

Channel 4's media project manager for Creative Diversity, Ian Mackenzie, was keen to cast a positive light on the future of Dundee: "It is a timely investment," he said. This is a very positive counter point to the bad news of Realtime Worlds. This investment is one example of people recognising the talent that is in Dundee."

The move goes some way to assuaging fears that the area could experience something of an exodus of talent following the collapse of APB developer Realtime Worlds this month. Many national and international publishers and developers have been hosting recruitment events in the city aimed at ex-Realtime Worlds staff.

Scottish Enterprise, a company dedicated to the assistance of new and smaller businesses in Scotland, has been attempting to persuade these companies to establish offices in the area, rather than relocating staff elsewhere.

"This isn't the end of the story," a spokeswoman said, "Our experience of large studios going down is that new studios grow out of them. This week has been hugely depressing, but in the next few weeks we may start to see interest in buying Realtime Worlds.

"Scottish-based games developers must be allowed to compete on a level playing field. That is why it is particularly disappointing that the UK Government has so far failed to listen to the industry and the Scottish Government on the crucial issue of tax breaks."