Tories reach out to games industry

The Conservative Party’s Shadow Arts and Culture Minister has told MCV that he would be keen to set up a games industry equivalent of the UK Film Council should the party win power.

Ed Vaizey also spoke of his desire to negotiate tax breaks for UK developers – but stopped short of promising that studios would be given greater subsidies under a Tory Government.

The video games industry needs the Government to show interest in them – and I don’t think that’s been coming,” Vaizey told MCV. That’s something that would change very quickly under a Conservative Government.

There are a number of small, practical things you can do to make a difference to the industry – getting stuck into the skills agenda and making sure that the right courses are available.

Then you get onto the big landscape issues. Tax breaks is one, which is certainly something I’d be working very hard to achieve. The other is video games being represented at Governmental level. You’ve got the UK Film Council, but you don’t have a UK Video Games Council. That’s something I’d like to remedy.”

The news comes after The Conservative Party gained 27.7 per cent of UK votes in European elections – dwarfing Labour’s 15.7 per cent, which came in behind both The Tories and UKIP.

The news comes after MCV revevaled that the Government’s long-awaited age classification decision is due for release tomorrow.