UK Minister for Culture wants developers to work with young people

The UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries has laid out his hopes for the future of the UK industry now that tax relief for UK games studios has finally been confirmed. And those hopes don't include seeing local talent snapped up by overseas corporations.

"What I want to see is from great games, that have to have a cultural element to them in order to qualify for tax credits," Ed Vaizey MP told MCV.

"It would be great to see as many games companies as possible, when they're not busy working, engaging with young people"

"I want to see some real ambition from some of our home-grown games companies that want to grow and not necessarily be bought immediately by an American company when they get successful. I would love to see some real, domestic, home-grown growth that expands overseas."

In the interview Vaizey also explained that the Commission responsible for approving the tax credits "needed more convincing" on the subject of games than it had on other creative media and that this was the reason for delay to the scheme.

"I want to see elements of - which I think there already is but even more - engagement with young people in terms of skills," he continued.

"The industry itself is a great poster industry for science and computer science and the kind of hard skills that Michael Gove is so keen about kids learning. So it would be great to see as many games companies as possible, when they're not busy working, engaging with young people and showing how studying science at school gets you a pretty great job at the end of it."

You can read UKIE and TIGA's responses to the tax relief announcement by following the links.