NESTA – the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts has called on UK game developers to contribute to the creation of a developer-driven (and owned) publisher, to help ensure the protect the future of the games sector in Britain.
NESTA is looking for game developers t get involved in establishing a developer-owned and driven consortium, which will publish games digitally, allowing the developers to retain the rights to their intellectual property and establishing a financially viable business, outside the current model in which the major games publishers control the IP and the ongoing relationship.
According to the press release, NESTA has a great deal of support behind it for this idea:
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.’
There are a series of events planned across the UK over the coming weeks for developers interested in finding out more and possibly getting involved with the project. The events taking place are:
- 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 attend one of these sessions, you need to register with NESTA via e-mail.
