Newsletter Jan/Feb

For those of you that missed it, the last election saw a change in government policy. The âgamesâ or âinteractive entertainmentâ industry would be jointly sponsored by 2 government departments instead of one — the DTI (our traditional point of contact) and now the Dept of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS). DCMS is the sponsoring department for everything from tourism, licensing of drinking dens, the Olympics, Film and TV industries and now us.

What does this mean? Well, we are not quite sure yet (nor are DTI and DCMS), but it is interesting that on a couple of occasions, one publicly and the other in discussion with the recent TIGA delegation to meet James Purnell (DCMS Minister responsible for games), he asked whether we were concerned at the continuing trend of UK companies being bought by foreign companies? We replied that we could live with this providing there was a way of renewing the skills and IP that investors came to the UK for. The TIGA position is that if we do not invest in staying ahead of the game in terms of development techniques and skills AND the development of new IP, our position as number 3 in the world in production of global content (and sales) will soon be eroded.

Tiga believes that we need:

1. targeted training initiatives for new entrants and for refreshing the skills of existing developers and
2. to confront the global competition issues that are delivering advantages to our closest competitors.

A recent Comparative Survey of State Aids to the Games Industry conducted for Tiga shows that in South Korea there are upward of 80 government paid staff representing and working for the games industry and big funds backing them. In Canada, the government is offering massive employment rebates as well as enhanced R&D Tax Credits to companies that set up shop there. In France, a number of Tiga members remarked on how all the new content on display at Games Connection from French developers had been made possible by the French governmentâs new concept development fund.

Our government has traditionally argued that companies that can stand up to global pressures without state aids are likely to be more fit for survival. This is fine if the so-called âlevel playing field existsâ - we will be calling on the government departments to follow up on our research to tell us why, if they will not give us similar advantages, how they will act to remove these distortions to the market place.

Skills Priorities

We are therefore underscoring our ambitions and are pleased to announce that Stephen Harrison—Mirfield, Head of Human Resources at Codemasters is joining the board of TIGA. His views and experience will be central to our skills strategies for lobbying government and devising a practical strategy that can be implemented.

Stephen is clear in his mind that the industry needs to drop some of its paranoia and to come together to build best practice. This will be one of the only ways in which the UK can remain competitive in a challenging global environment. Anyone wishing to input into the debate should contact us with points of view, issues and ideas.