Tiga is the trade body that represents the business and commercial interests of game development studios. Principally Tiga's members are based in the UK but some members are from other territories who wish to benefit from our services.

Tiga was launched in 2001 by DTI Minister Patricia Hewitt MP. Its remit was to gain recognition for the 300 or so independent studios that existed in the UK making games for consoles, PC, handheld and mobile phone platforms.

Tiga's role has evolved in the 5 years of its existence to represent all developers - whether publisher owned or independent. In these 5 years the number of studios has roughly halved down to 150.

Tiga believes that the key question and challenge for the UK is whether the UK can remain competitive in an increasingly competitive global environment - this must be the case for any territory that has developers but few publishers and routes to market. In pursuit of this, Tiga actively liaises and lobbies with Government, the EU and local Regional Development Agencies.

Tiga has recently admitted publisher owned studios into the membership, and in 2005 formed a membership category for Outsourcing companies, from all over the world. In 2006 we launched a Technology membership category to reflect the changing nature of the development process and involvement of various tools, middleware and co development companies.

For more information please read Tiga's Takeout newsletter or visit www.tiga.org.