UK games industry

2 November 2009

TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, urged the Government to begin measuring the monetary value of UK video game exports and imports. TIGA encouraged the Government to take action after the Government revealed in a response to a parliamentary question from the Conservative MP, Philip Davies, that it did not have comprehensive data measuring the UK’s trade performance in relation to video games.

Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA, said:

“TIGA research shows that a typical UK game development business generates 46 per cent of its turnover from the export of games. Our successful video games sector exports games all over the world.

“Unfortunately, the UK Government does not accurately assess the trade performance of our video games industry. The only data that exist is partial and incomplete. Royalties, licence fees and trade in services associated with video games are not identified by the UK Government.

“Knowledge industries like the video games industry could play a significant role in the UK economy in the future. If we are to assess the performance of knowledge industries such as the video games industry, then the UK Government must start to collect accurate data concerning the trade performance of the video games industry.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

Philip Davies asked the following parliamentary question and revealed the following data on October 26th 2009:

Philip Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the monetary value of (a) video game exports and (b) video game imports was in each year from 2001 to 2008. [293981]

Ian Lucas, Minister for Business and Regulatory Reform: Full figures are not separately identifiable for trade in video games as a whole: royalties, licence fees and trade in services associated with video games are not separately identifiable; nor are trade in goods figures for video games not for use with a television receiver. The figures in the following table are for trade in goods for video games for use with a television receiver (Harmonised System code 950410) recorded in the overseas trade statistics.

Exports Imports

2001 71 216

2002 139 465

2003 104 387

2004 68 283

2005 86 285

2006 11 516

2007 182 1,026

2008 220 1,140