Parliamentary Games Day

TO NEWS/POLITICAL DESKS   

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

London, UK – December 1 ^st 2010

Pro gamer consumer lobby group Gamers’ Voice are to hold a special event with MP’s and video game industry representatives at the House of Commons. Politicians of all parties are being invited to come and play video games with Gamers’ Voice members.

After the recent cancellation of the proposed Video Game Tax Relief, and the poor promotion of the new PEGI rating system, Gamers’ Voice and John Whittingdale MP have formally invited industry representatives, MPs and press to attend a Games Day event at the House of Commons. The aim of the event is to generate positive publicity for video games and the PEGI system soon to be coming into force.

Gamers’ Voice has so far confirmed attendance by UKIE, the Video Standards Council and Ed Vaizey MP, the Minister for Communication, Culture and the Creative Industries.

The event is part of Games’ Voice wider campaign to promote a positive images of gaming and to raise awareness about the video games rating system, known as PEGI, so that parents and guardians of minors can make informed and responsible choice when buying video games.

Paul Gibson, Chairman of Gamers’ Voice said: “The video games industry had a lot of publicity earlier in the year with the success of its representative bodies, obtaining confirmation that the UK would soon benefit from a discrete tax relief.”

“The industry as a whole believed that video games were finally obtaining the proper recognition they deserve as a form of art and as a valuable contribution to our economy. In addition the Digital Economy Act set the basis for the PEGI system to be enforced as law, although we are disappointed that very little appears to have been done to promote that fact.

It is clear to us that some members of Parliament are clearly out of touch with the public and wrongly believe that video games are corrupting British children. The recent release of new forms of motion control make this a great time to get MPs back on board with the industry after a difficult 6 month period. Put simply, if they won’t come to us, we’re taking the games to them.”

Ends

Notes to Editor

·         Gamers' Voice is an independent pressure group representing video and computer gamers in the UK which seeks to act as a conduit to make our voice heard in the government and mainstream media

·         In November 2009, Tom Watson MP founded Gamers' Voice on Facebook in order to bring together gamers from across the UK in response to negative articles on gamers in the UK media. Gamers’ Voice now has nearly 17,000 members.