Call For Games Developers To Create Developer Owned Publisher

15/11/2010

Ed Vaizey MP, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries said: 'Creative and innovative ways of working are exactly what the games industry needs to grow.  By bringing companies together through this new initiative NESTA is helping developers get the most out of their Intellectual Property. We need a sustainable UK industry and this initiative will really help.'

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) is calling on video games developers to participate in a ground-breaking new video game consortium, which will allow them to exploit their games through digital distribution.

NESTA will work with up to eight UK independent developers working in social, mobile and traditional gaming, to build the consortium. In addition, marketing and distribution experts will be employed to create a new video games publisher, owned by the developers. It will work outside the constraints of the traditional publisher and developer model, where publishers retain control over the game developers' IP, distribution and marketing rights.

The consortium, which is currently recruiting a Chief Executive Officer, has the support of the trade associations UKIE and TIGA and business networks Game Horizon and Game Republic.

Ed Vaizey MP, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries said: 'Creative and innovative ways of working are exactly what the games industry needs to grow.  By bringing companies together through this new initiative NESTA is helping developers get the most out of their Intellectual Property. We need a sustainable UK industry and this initiative will really help.'

Richard Wilson CEO of TIGA said: 'Traditionally, many small developers have struggled to retain ownership of their IP. One of TIGA's key activities is to help UK developers publish their own games, retain ownership of their IP and exploit it.  NESTA's proposed video game consortium seeks to provide another route for developers to retain their IP. I am sure that TIGA members will look forward to learning more about the NESTA proposed consortium and TIGA wishes it every success.'

Andy Payne, Chair of UKIE said 'UKIE wholeheartedly supports this new initiative. The strength of the UK video games and interactive entertainment industry is dependent on successful products being released into the market, and this is an innovative new approach which can learn lessons from the past, whilst optimising the opportunities through technology  to successful monetisation of the creative content.'

Working as a collaborative entity, the consortium will build a new digital distribution publisher. It will deliver a portfolio of games developed by its members and will reduce the publishing risk for developers whilst increasing their return on investment. The consortium is being established by NESTA but it is expected to be self-sustaining after an initial one-year investment.

Interested developers are invited to find out more by attending one of a series of regional meetings taking place in London, Scotland and Leeds. Details of these events are as follows:

· Thursday 2 December- Edinburgh, Apex Waterloo Hotel, 27 Waterloo Place, EH1 3BH 2-4pm

· Tuesday 7 December-London, Osborne Clarke Offices, 1 London Wall, EC2Y 5EB 10am-12noon

· Thursday 20 January- Leeds, Radisson BLU, No 1 The Light, LS1 8TL, 6-8pm

To register your attendance, please email gamesconsortium@nesta.org.uk

Notes to editors

For further information, please contact Jan Singleton on 020 7438 2606/ jan.singleton@nesta.org.uk or Catherine Anderson on 020 7438 2609/ catherine.anderson@nesta.org.uk

NESTA is the UK's foremost independent expert on how innovation can solve some of the country's major economic and social challenges. Its work is enabled by an endowment, funded by the National Lottery, and it continues to operate at no cost to the taxpayer.

NESTA is a world leader in its field and carries out its work through a blend of experimental programmes, analytical research and investment in early-stage companies.