GAME REPUBLIC MEMBERS CONTRIBUTE OVER £26M TO NATIONAL ECONOMY

Tuesday 25 April 2006/... Four members of the region's alliance of high-tech companies have been recognised in the games industry's prestigious annual Develop 100 report.

The companies - Rockstar Leeds, Sumo Digital, Team 17 and Zoo - contributed £26,308,944 to the UK economy in 2005, the report reveals.

Develop 100 is a unique report published this month by the UK's leading development trade magazine, Develop. It tracks the sales through UK tills of every game released in 2005. The result is a guide that throws light on the real winners and losers in one of the fastest-growing creative industries in the world.

Rockstar Leeds placed 18th overall, with revenues of £16,657,557 - over two and a half times as much as Microsoft generated. Sumo Digital's games pulled in £4,061,146, placing them at 69 in the Develop 100. Team 17's titles netted £3,112,493 for UK retailers, enough to place the firm at 83 overall. And publisher Zoo also made the top 100; its £2,477,748 was enough to see it enter at 96.

"Over 26 million pounds directly generated by four Game Republic members based in the Yorkshire and Humber regions is a fantastic achievement," says Craig Albeck, Game Republic. "We've long known the region is a hotbed of talent within the games industry - but to have this confirmed in cold, hard cash terms is nonetheless a real honour."

Game Republic receives funding from Yorkshire Forward and is part financed by The European Union.

Ends