Culture, Media and Sport select committee chair warns of the dangers of mixed messages from the British games industry.
September, ELSPA, the trade body representing games publishers in the UK market rebranded itself as UKIE–the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment. As part of that rebranding it changed its constitution to present itself as “a new champion for the entire video games and interactive entertainment industry.” This was met with puzzlement in some quarters, with Richard Wilson, CEO of development trade body TIGA expressing confusion at the move given his group’s success in lobbying the previous government for game industry tax breaks.
Now it seems that the government is also concerned that the new body may make it harder for the video game industry to push its agenda forward. Talking to GameSpot UK, John Whittingdale MP, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport select commitee and co-chair of the all-party group for video games said, “The government much prefers hearing a single voice.
“If you get different views from within the same industry the immediate reaction from within government is ‘go and sort it out between yourselves what you actually want before you come to us,'” Whittingdale continued. “I think there is a danger that there might be some confusion if you have different bits of the industry saying slightly different things,” he concluded.
Wilson, however, was dismissive of the government’s concerns. “I think government sometimes exaggerates the issue of asking the industry to speak with one voice,” he said. “I think ministers are often inclined to want the least amount of trouble,” he concluded, pointing to the success TIGA had had in putting the industry’s case across to government in the past and the success he claimed was continuing to have on matters such as education and immigration. Despite Wilson’s bullishness though, both TIGA and the industry at large has continued to have trouble securing tax breaks from the current government, failing to stop the perceived “brain drain” to competitors such as Canada.
Michael Rawlinson, director general of UKIE, was similarly dismissive of any dangerss presented by the two bodies making their own case given their differing agendas. “Where our agendas align, for example on tax breaks, UKIE and TIGA speak to Government with one voice,”
he said. “UKIE and TIGA represent the needs of their members, all of whom are part of the video games industry. UKIE“s remit is also to represent the wider interactive entertainment industry, on a range of issues to government as directed by our members,” he said.
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