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TIGA’s UK games industry wishlist for 2014

2013 was a highly eventful year for the UK video game business, writes Dr Richard Wilson, chief executive, TIGA.

We had the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation into freemium games and the sad closure of businesses like Blitz that have contributed so much to our industry over the years.

However, we also saw encouraging signs with big independent studios like Rebellion managing to go from strength to strength in spite of the challenges we’re all facing.

It was also good to see PlayJam launching a new micro console, GameStick. It’s encouraging to see another high tech British business exporting its products to international markets. Furthermore, GameStick is based on chipset technology from ARM, the world’s leading semiconductor intellectual property supplier and a major UK success story.

From our point of view it was a good year for TIGA too, which saw us hold more, very successful events, from the TIGA GameHack to the TIGA Awards, and our GameDev nights around the country. We also saw more world-class tech businesses like ARM and Level 3 joining TIGA because they appreciate the value they get from being in the TIGA community and building relationships with the rest of the network.

The industry highlights of 2013 were of course the launch of two new excellent consoles from Sony and Microsoft and the mainstream excitement surrounding Grand Theft Auto V and its record breaking success in the entertainment business as a whole – another great British success story. Together they demonstrated the cultural significance of video games in society, highlighted the creativity and talent of UK game developers and shone a strong and positive spotlight on our industry.

As for what we’d like to see in 2014, above all we’re hoping the EU Commission will finally give the green light for Games Tax Relief in the UK, which will effectively reduce the cost of games development. Game developers in many countries receive tax breaks for games production. No such tax breaks exist in the UK and so the industry has declined. Between 2008 and 2011, employment in the sector fell by over 10 per cent and investment by £48 million. TIGA’s achievement of GTR will reverse this decline. TIGA has spearheaded this campaign for more than six years now, and we are, we hope, within touching distance of victory.

Games Tax Relief is at the top of our wish list for 2014 because of the tremendous impact it would have on the UK video game industry. It would mean more jobs being created, more investments being made and ultimately more British games being developed and sold around the world. The introduction of Games Tax Relief will also mean the establishment of a more level international playing field.

Secondly, we want to see the continual professionalisation of the UK’s games industry. Professionalisation is not about dressing up in a shirt and tie, but rather the continual investment in and development of improved leadership and management skills and continuous learning and development by games businesses generally.

Too many UK games business fail. For example, between 2008 and 2011, 216 new games companies entered the UK games industry but there were also 197 closures. This high mortality rate is primarily a consequence of inadequate commercial skills, such as pricing and payment, distribution and marketing, customer relationship management and limited access to finance. So we hope to see UK games businesses enhancing their commercial skills as well as making use of the resources available to them from organisations like Creative Skillset. Through Creative Skillset’s Trainee Finder programme you can claim back up to 50% of the cost of hiring and training staff new to the industry. Match funding is also available for training programmes.

Thirdly, TIGA wants immigration reform. Overly restrictive legislation could threaten the competitiveness of the UK’s tech companies. This is because for many UK specialist technology businesses, hiring highly skilled specialist talent from around the world is critical for growth. Employers in the IT, development and related high-technology sectors experience skills shortages and sometimes simply cannot recruit the requisite highly skilled people. Few people doubt that the UK needs some immigration controls. However, if Britain is to protect and enhance its high technology sectors then we need smart policy that responds to the complex realities of modern business.

More generally, we expect to see an increase in the size and quality of mobile and tablet games as the technology and the market continues to develop. This is likely to entail increases in the size and quality of mobile and tablet games, which in turn will likely mean bigger development teams and project lead times too.

Of course we also want to see TIGA to continue to grow, and innovate in the services we can offer our members. And you don’t have to be a developer or digital publisher to be part of our community. Whether you’re a technology business, an outsourcing company, service provider or any other business that is looking to do business with the UK games industry, then we’d love to hear from you too.

Whoever you are TIGA wishes you every success in 2014, let’s a make it a great year for Great British business!

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