Lack of UK government funding for games "good idea," says Nordic chief

Erik Robertson, organiser of government funded organisation Nordic Game, has issued a stark warning to British politicians of an ostensible refusal to support the British games development industry with grants.

"I would say that if the British government and politicians in Britain keep refusing to support their industry — as it is, as I understand it, the third in the world in terms of size — from the Nordic perspective: good idea."

Robertson was speaking after a presentation by Norwegian minister for culture and church affairs, Trond Giske, at the Nordic Game event in Malmö, Sweden.

"I'll be careful giving advice to politicians in other countries, but I can say what our objectives are towards this industry," Giske added.

"I view it as a cultural industry, as a media branch. This is something people develop their impressional skills, their ability to see the world in different angles and ways, and I think it's very important that we have ways of telling stories from our own culture also in this industry as in movies."

"Of course, we could fill cinemas with British or American movies, but we want to have our own stories as well. Our children should have access to computer games based on the Nordic story-telling traditions," said the minister.

During his presentation, Giske handed out several grants to Nordic developers, including 600,000 Swedish krowns (65,200 Euro) to Guppyworks for "The Snow Queen and the Magic Mirror", 400,000 Swedish krowns (43,400 Euro) to Skalden Studios for "Blablobben Doggo og det Gronne Monsteret" and 500,000 Denmark Kroner (67,000 Euro) to Sub-level X Entertainment for "Nord".

Giske also detailed how government funding in the Nordic region will achieve Nordic Game's goal of giving children access to games which feature Nordic characters and storytelling and raise the profile of Scandinavian development through events such as E3 in Los Angeles and Games Convention in Leipzig.

The approach of supporting the games development business through government funding in the rest of Europe has become a bone of contention in the UK among those increasingly desperately seeking employment and training grants from politicians.

Giske pointed at the size difference of the two territories as a possible reason for a refusal to budge from the British Labour government.

"You have to take into consideration that the UK is 60 million people," said Giske. "Totally in the Nordic countries we are around 24 million people. It's a much smaller market and we have smaller language areas, so there might be a different need for support in our countries than there is in Britain."