MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Batman: Arkham Knight, No Man’s Sky, Fable Legends, Total War: Attila and Tearaway Unfolded have been named alongside Star War, Avengers, James Bond, Downton Abbey, Coldplay and Rita Ora as major creative projects that will boost British coffers in 2015.
The list was put together by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which revealed that UK’s creative industries (which includes games) was now worth 76.9bn, a growth of ten per cent over 2013 (which is three times the growth rate of the wider UK economy).
In total, 1.7m people now work in the creative industries, 5.6 per cent of the UK.
However, video games remains underrepresented in these figures because many UK games business currently use the wrong Standard Industrial Classifications (SIC) codes. UK games industry trade body UKIE is encouraging UK games businesses to change their SIC Code. Currently only a third of games businesses use the right code. A guide to changing your code can be found here.
CEO of Ukie, Dr Jo Twist said: It is fantastic to see the creative industries reaching an all-time high, and the trend is for growth. The games industry is an economic and creative powerhouse and we expect to see this growth continue as the new tax breaks start to take effect. However, as DCMS points out, the latest statistics do not tell the full story or reflect the true size of the UK’s fast-moving games sector.
We strongly encourage game businesses to double check their SIC code to make sure they are registered in the correct industry.”
We will continue to work alongside games businesses, DCMS and the ONS to help improve their data and allow us to have a much clearer picture of the UK games industry.”
