28 October 2009

ELSPA supports Ed Vaizey in his stance on the videogames industry

While Vaizey stopped short of promising tax breaks for the country’s videogames industry, he vowed that a Tory win at the next election would mean an exploration of new ways to try help bolster our industry. He added that he was alarmed that the games sector in the UK was starting to fall behind other countries, which are generating more revenue from making and developing games.

Michael Rawlinson, ELSPA Director General, said: “We welcome much in Ed Vaizey’s speech. His grasp of the economic as well as social and cultural impact of the country’s videogames industry is commendable. In his speech he talked in terms of videogames being a world-beating UK industry with a wide footprint touching on areas from leisure and education to health and defence. He also recognised that we are a ‘hard’ industry, that is to say one with a highly-skilled workforce of mostly graduates.”

“Ed Vaizey appeared to share our concern that without solid ongoing support and help from Government there is a real chance of the UK games industry losing jobs, income and standing in the global marketplace. He talked of the need for ‘a coherent strategy of support for the video games industry" and here he is right on the money.

ELSPA is already preparing strategies that will cover incentives to invest in Intellectual Property, skills development and the general economic advancement of our industry. It is certainly good to know, partly as a result of ELSPA’s ongoing efforts, that increasingly Parliamentarians are coming to understand the many benefits our industry brings to this country – after all, each year we contribute around £1billion to the UK economy alone.”

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Contacts:

For all press enquiries, please contact the ELSPA press office on T: +44 (0)20 7300 6143 or E: press@elspa.com

About ELSPA

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association represents all the major publishers of games in the UK. Founded in 1989 to establish a specific and collective identity for the country’s interactive leisure software industry, membership includes companies publishing and distributing leisure software in the UK. As a gateway to Europe, ELSPA works to protect, promote and provide for the interests of all its members as well as addressing issues that affect the industry as a whole such as age ratings, child safety and IP protection.

ELSPA works with members and media to illustrate the beneficial contributions that the UK videogames industry makes to the British economy as well as its influence in other industries. In addition ELSPA works with GfK Chart-Track to compile weekly, monthly and annual charts and sales reports for the UK market.

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