Today’s a good day to be involved with the UK games industry. With Fronz’s report on this year’s massive jump in retail revenue and now this, some serious momentum seems to be building right now.
Following the inevitable government reshuffle caused by Gordon Brown’s recent snatching away of the premiership from Tony Blair, Margaret Hodge, the new Minister for Creative Industries has pledged to give videogames some serious attention. Speaking to MCV, she stated:
I look forward to continuing to work closely with the video and computer games sector to support innovation and growth. The Government has an important role to play in championing all the creative industries, both at home and overseas, to ensure that the UK maintains its position at the forefront of the global stage.
It’s no secret that the UK industry has been taking a beating over recent years, its previous plethora of development houses being progressively swallowed up by bigger international companies, with very few genuine independents left. This isn’t helped by the fact that some other countries’ governments offer tax-breaks which make working in the UK increasingly less attractive. While the British government has a similar system for the film industry, nothing is currently in place for games despite calls for it by developers, so hopefully the new Minister has been paying attention.
The UK development scene used to be immense during the 16-bit era, with tens upon tens of recognizable names in development and publishing. While gaming’s explosion in popularity, and the subsequent global homogenization of the industry, probably means we’ll never get things back to the level they were at, anything that helps to rebuild the unique British voice that’s been missing from gaming in the intervening years has to be a good thing, so I can only hope Mrs. Hodge is serious about her aims.
