The UK government has announced an additional funding of £77 million to accelerate the growth of the country’s creative sectors. This also applies to the video game industry, where developers and emerging studios will be able to receive help at early stages.
According to a new strategy, the UK government plans to grow the creative industries by £50 billion and support a million more jobs by 2030. This includes subsectors such as advertising, architecture, design, photography, film, music, visual arts, publishing, and video games.
Out of the £77 million of new funding, £5 million will go to the UK Games Fund, which provides grants for prototype funding (up to £30k) and supports graduate talent development through special programs.
This will bring the fund’s total funding to £13.4 million over the next two years. From now on, it will be able to help video game start-ups grow their businesses and attract private investment.
“We’ll be seeking opportunities where our funding can unlock additional resources in parallel and drive new game IPs forward,” Paul Durrant, CEO of non-profit UK Games Talent and Finance Community Interest Company, said in a statement. It’s likely we’ll be supporting companies both within our existing community and also those where our present grant size hasn’t previously matched the scale of their project.”
Daniel Wood, co-CEO of video games trade body Ukie added that the UK games industry creates quality jobs across the country and contributes over £5 billion in gross value added (GVA) with 80% outside London and Southeast.
The UK Games Fund has backed dozens of studios and titles since 2015, including SquarePlay’s Space Trash Scavenger, Fireblade Software’s Abandon Ship, Cardboard Sword’s The Siege And The Sandfox, Fallen Tree’s American Fugitive, and Kaizen Game Works’ Paradise Killer.