Tiga calls for more dev industry statistics

Tiga is calling on the Government to commission quality data on the video games industry, so that UK games developers can be more competitive.

The call has come after the publication of the Government’s 2008 Value-Added Scoreboard, which analyses the scale and growth of Value Added (a company’s sales less the cost of its bought-in goods and services) for the top 800 UK companies and the top 750 European firms.

The report, however, contains very little information about the games industry, and Tiga CEO Richard Wilson believes that this information could provide "invaluable benchmarking data to UK games developers and to potential overseas investors".

“The publication of this year’s Value Added Scoreboard highlights a general problem facing the games industry: there is a paucity of good quality data on the UK video games industry. Information such as value-added, investment on R&D, average annual expenditure on training and the value of video games in terms of exports, for example, is thin or incomplete," he said.

“If we are to improve the competitiveness of the UK games developers then we must have better quality information. Ideally, games developers should be able to benchmark their value-added, investments in R&D, workforce development, marketing and other business activities against industry averages.

“Where possible, Tiga aims to develop this kind of information and provide it to its membership. The Government should also commission research that identifies this crucial data. This would be of great help, especially for the many smaller and medium-sized enterprises in the video games industry.”