The Independent Games Developers Association says UK Videogame Industry is ‘Back on Track’

The Independent Games Developer Association (TIGA) has issued a press release summarising its Making Games in the UK Today: June 2014 Annual Report. The report outlines that “the UK videogame development sector is back on track, with studio headcounts, wider games industry employment, tax revenue and investment all on the up.” The report continues, “Employment in the UK games development sector has returned to levels last seen in 2008, with a rise of seven per cent in 2013 representing a five-year high. The games development sector also contributes more than £1 billion to the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”

The findings illustrate how successful post-recession UK videogame companies have been – from the smallest to the largest. The report stated that nearly 28,000 individuals are employed – directly or indirectly – by the UK videogames sector. The British Government received £419 million from combined direct and indirect taxes generated by the sector as a whole. These numbers are massive and highlight how successful British gaming has become. However, it should be noted that whilst the TIGA assessment rings true, the 2007/08 recession impacted heavily upon the sector and it has taken up until now to plateau at that level. The wider industry has seen a decline in traditional console/PC based gaming with a higher percentage generated from mobile gaming revenue – which back in 2007/08 was still in its infancy.

The success of mobile gaming, whilst brilliant for job creation and tax revenue collection, does augment the argument in a sense that more development is needed to return to pre-2008 levels of console/PC gaming development – the closure of different companies from Blitz to Modus Operandi highlight how tough the sector can be. However, from such closures – smaller companies have, like a phoenix swooping from the ashes, risen from these closures to create smaller and more innovative gaming companies. Perhaps what this report fails to really ‘applaud’ is this new rise of micro developer working in the mainstream?