The UK and Irish Game Industries - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 114

associations and consultancy reports. We have noted that overall employ-
ment is growing in Ireland and may be growing in the UK. We have noted
that there is considerable public sector support already at the regional and
national levels in the UK and that the industry already employs more highly
qualifi ed graduates than most media industries. Further, many academic
institutions engage directly with the industry (through UKIE, Skillset,
Women in Games and student competitions like Dare to be Digital) despite
its discourse of skills shortages, brain drains and low-quality education.
What the statistics point to is “relative” decline compared to other rapidly
developing industries and may indeed hide a good deal of “labour transfer”
between branches of multinational companies.
The discourse of the creative industries, nation branding and the develop-
ment of “strategies of distinction” (Tremblay 2011) clearly informs the current
discourse by the trade associations in the UK and their “creative” use of statis-
tics. What needs to be discussed in national cultural and industrial policies are
questions related to who and where IP is owned and who is benefi ting from its
exploitation. We need to discuss working conditions, demographic structures
and contractual practices in the industry. We need to ask who is being repre-
sented by trade associations and interrogate their reports, statistics and press
releases more earnestly. We need to question how “independent” research con-
sultancies and agencies are, and see who they are “independent from”. When
these reports narrow discussions to focus on the need for government support,
on “talent” and on “skills” we need to broaden the agenda. The same actors
are arguing for government fi nancial support in the UK and Ireland while they
argue for “free trade” and “less regulation” elsewhere.

NOTES

1. British Broadcasting Corporation—the public sector broadcaster in the UK.
2. See http://library.digiguide.tv/lib/uk-tv-highlight/Brits+Who+Made+The+M
odern+World-4496/Documentary/ (a ccessed 09/03/2012).
3. An entertaining list can be found at http://www.creativetourist.com/features/
the-aesthetics-of-gaming (accessed 09/03/2012). Also see the series of fi ve
articles written by David Crookes in the Independent in February 2011 on
the Best of British Gaming at http://blogs.independent.co.uk/author/david-
crookes/ (accessed 09/03/2012).
4. See interview at http://www.c64.com/interviews/collins.html ( accessed
09/03/2012).

5. See http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classifi cation/the-bbfc-uk-law (accessed

09/03/2012).

6. Cornford, Naylor and Driver (2000, 100) identifi ed 195 in their work of
which 126 were development only, twenty publishing only and a further
twenty-fi ve engaged in both development and publishing. An Oxford Eco-
nomics report (2008) estimated that the industry employed ten thousand
developers directly. Skillset is an industry body founded by David Puttnam
and jointly funded by industry and government. Its focus is improving the
productivity and competitiveness of the creative media industries in the UK.