The UK Film Council could have its remit broadened to represent the computer games industry as well as cinema if a Conservative government were elected.

Ed Vaizey, the shadow minister for culture and the creative industries, told a Westminster eForum that he would favour the UK’s games sector joining forces with the film industry to gain more clout.

“Video games need a voice at the top table,” he said. The UK games sector’s two trade associations, Tiga and Elspa, did not individually command the same attention in parliament as the Film Council, he said.

One of the key roles of the UK Film Council is to distribute around £100m ($162m) a year in National Lottery money to support British film-makers.

Richard Wilson, chief executive of Tiga, the industry association representing the computer developers, said games companies were likely to support a tie-up if it meant getting access to some of this funding.

Senior executives in the games industry said they would be willing to consider working with the Film Council in order to raise the profile of gaming.

“It is something that has to be looked at,” said Ian Livingston, life president of Eidos, the games company behind the Lara Croft Tomb Raider franchise.

“We don’t have any representation on that level. It could be beneficial. I can see little downside, at least in the short term,” said Keith Ramsdale, head of Northern Europe for Electronic Arts, the US games publisher.

Mr Vaizey also indicated that a Conservative government could be supportive of tax breaks, which the industry has been lobbying for over the last few years.

“We do agree that the UK video games sector needs to develop a framework to be competitive with the rest of the world,” he said.

Tiga has warned that without tax relief, employment in the UK games industry could decline five per cent a year for the next five years. Many development studios are moving work to countries like Canada, which offer generous tax incentives to companies in the sector.

David Braben, founder of Frontier, one of the UK’s leading games development studios, said that the UK was in danger of falling to sixth position in the international games development league, compared with a third-place position only a few years ago.

France put in place a tax relief scheme last year for games companies, but plans for a similar move in the UK were rejected in the pre-Budget report last month.

The games industry employs around 28,000 people in the UK and contributes £1bn to GDP. Consumers spent £1.73bn on games in 2009, outstripping the £1.2bn spent at the cinema box office and on buying DVDs. However, the games sector has always struggled to gain recognition from politicians.

From: Financial Times
By Maija Palmer, Technology Correspondent
Published: January 22 2010 02:16