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TIGA welcomes £25m Government investment

TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, has welcomed a £25 million cash injection for the creative industries which was announced in yesterday’s Budget.

The creative industries as a whole were given the money to help contribute to economic growth. It breaks down as £5m extra per year for the Skills Investment Fund over the next two years, with government match-funding for voluntary industry contributions.

A further £15m has been committed to the design and launch of a new competition, led by the Technology Strategy Board.

It comes on top of the £6m announced by Chancellor George Osborne in 2012’s Autumn Statement. The extra funding is for SIF, administered by Creative Skillset and it will support skills development in the UK digital content sectors.

Not all of the money will be handed to videogaming but it will be one of the beneficiaries.

Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO, said: “The increase in the Skills Investment Fund is positive news. TIGA board members on the Video Games Skills Council will work with partners to ensure that this match funding money is easy to apply for and applicable for a wide range of important training needs.

“The £15 million digital competition for new digital content production could also provide a great opportunity to the video games sector, depending on the details governing the scheme.”

TIGA board members including Giselle Stewart from Ubisoft Reflections and Nick Brown from Boss Level are represented on the Video Games Skills Council and so they will be able to advise on the distribution of some of this money.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by TIGA - The Independent Games Developers Association Ltd .