British Games Institute gains momentum with new petition

Moves to help create a British Games Institute, a new body similar to the BFI but for games, have stepped up another notch.

Following a week in which the games industry took to Westminster to gain support from the government and help show MPs the impact that industry has on the UK economy, a petition has been started to encourage the government to fund the BGI.

The petition, which has been set up by industry veteran Ian Livingstone, one of the founders of the BGI idea, looks to help put the proposal for funding in front of parliament, moving the discussion towards action.

"We have made world-class games for nearly 40 years," Livingstone says on the petition. "But the studios that make our games face massive challenges in raising the money needed to develop games, fighting low public and media recognition of games’ impact on our culture and economy, and real difficulties accessing the skills to keep our games world-class. British games contribute well over £1 billion to the country’s economy every year but government funding for the art form that is games has been negligible.

"The [BGI] is a proposal backed by over 500 games, arts, finance and educational organisations, as well as both trade bodies TIGA and Ukie. But it won’t happen unless politicians understand how important games are to UK people like you. We need your help to persuade government to fund the British Games Institute."

The BGI was formally proposed to the Treasury in September 2017 and the recent Bazalgette Creative Sectors review recommended that it should be considered.

(Image courtesy of Billygoat Entertainment, Belfast, and taken from the Change.Org petition page)