TIGA Calls for the Launch of a Games Investment Fund

LONDON, January 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

90 per cent of micro-studios believe a Games Investment Fund would have a positive impact 

TIGA, the network for games developers and digital publishers, and the trade association representing the video games industry, has proposed the introduction of a Games Investment Fund to enhance studios' access to finance, promote the development of original IP and to encourage studio growth. TIGA's proposal for a Games Investment Fund would involve grants or loans being made available to games businesses on a pound for pound, matched funding basis, up to a maximum of £200,000. TIGA made the comments in a new report, Reinforcing Success: A Games Investment Fund for the UK and in the TIGA -  ITN Productions programme, Changing the Game: http://tiga.org/news/presenting-tiga-and-itn-productions-changing-the-game  

Chris White MP, Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Video Games in the Westminster Parliament, commented on TIGA's proposals:

"I support TIGA's call for the creation of a Games Investment Fund, which has the potential to provide a significant boost to the video games industry.  It is particularly important that we support small and medium-sized firms and the Games Investment Fund would improve access to finance, as well as promoting creativity and innovation in the UK.

"The video games sector continues to play an important role in our economy and represents some of the very best of our creative talent.  Finding new ways to support games developers, such as through a new Games Investment Fund, is needed to ensure the industry fulfils its potential."

Chris Law MP, Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Video Games in the Westminster Parliament, said:

"Establishing TIGA's proposed Games Investment Fund would boost investment and employment and help to grow the video games industry in the all of the UK's creative hotspots, including the Dundee and wider Scottish games development clusters."

Access to finance is a challenge for many UK games developers  

Games developers typically struggle to raise debt finance because they have relatively few assets and little financial track record. Equally, most venture capitalists and business angels will not invest in games because of high risk levels, low knowledge levels about the industry and high, largely fixed costs of due diligence relative to the amount of equity sought. 89 per cent of games company respondents to a recent TIGA survey that tried to raise institutional equity finance failed to do so. Consequently, many small and start-up studios struggle to raise finance and are vulnerable to collapse.