ELSPA becomes UKIE

When video game tax breaks made it into the Labour government's final budget before being ousted in May's general election, it was UK development body Tiga that took most of the plaudits for working with all the main political parties to realise one of the industry's longest held ambitions. The corresponding body for publishers in the UK, ELSPA, had been on the periphery of the debate, focusing its efforts in 2009 on attempting to ensure PEGI triumphed over the BBFC for game ratings and pushing for clampdowns on piracy. Yesterday, ELSPA made a step toward broadening its remit and influence by renaming itself UKIE--the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment--and changing its constitution.

UKIE's new logo.

Calling itself "a new champion for the entire video games and interactive entertainment industry," UKIE is a marked departure from the organisation's previous incarnation, which was specifically aimed at representing the interests of mostly multinational publishing houses' UK arms. At the launch event, UKIE's chairman Andy Payne made it clear that the organisation's goal was to help the games industry become "the leading industry within the UK's creative sector." Talking to GameSpot about this expansion of ELSPA's remit to include developers on becoming UKIE, Payne said that "the lines between publishing and development and selling your games are more blurred than they've ever been." He said that ELSPA's board felt that simply representing publishers was "restrictive" and was damaging to the organisation's ability to achieve its goals.

Talking about how UKIE intended to achieve its revised aims, Payne said, "We will seek to inform and explain to all stakeholders, from policy makers, educators, media, and the general public the reasons why interactive entertainment is key to the future economic and social wellbeing of the UK." Payne also made it clear that engaging with the education sector was UKIE's main priority to ensure that UK developers had a talent pool to draw on by making sure that take-up of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects was increased. This goal would be achieved, he said, by making it clear from a very early age that game development required such skills and making sure that educators at all levels were aware of the positive societal impact of games and the interactive entertainment industry.

UKIE's Director General Michael Rawlinson announcing the rebranding.

Payne made it clear that one of the benefits for gamers from the new organisation would be ensuring that they are not "ghettoised" and that the image of gamers as "weird, socially inept pizza-guzzling coke-drinking men and boys who are not interested in hygiene but in the content of their software" was challenged by a body with "the authority to speak for the industry."

Not everyone was so positive, however. Talking to GameSpot today, Tiga's CEO Richard Wilson expressed puzzlement at the move. "We clearly do represent the UK games industry, and we're going to carry on doing that," he said. "Tiga's been representing UK developers and outsourcers for 10 years. All those policies, which [UKIE] mentioned last night, Tiga has already been working on." While UKIE said that as well as recruiting developers it was looking to speak alongside Tiga "as equals," Wilson said "if they start trying to recruit developers, I think it’ll be much harder for Tiga and UKIE to work together."