TIGA Calls for the Launch of a Games Investment Fund - Seite 2

A Solution: A Games Investment Fund 

To improve developers' access to finance, the Government should facilitate the development of a Games Investment Fund (GIF). The GIF would disburse 25 convertible loans or matched grants of up to £200,000 per annum (£5 million in total). A commercial mentoring business advisory service, staffed by paid industry veterans, would be mandated for successful companies.

The GIF could be managed by the British Film Institute, the UK Games Talent and Finance Community Interest Company or one of the British Business Bank's finance providers. It could be financed either from the National Lottery or from Grant-in-Aid money from the Government.

The impact of the GIF 

The GIF would have a positive impact on the UK's games industry and wider economy. Over the five years from 2017 to 2021, the GIF would:

• increase headcount by nearly 600 staff;
• create over 1,000 indirect jobs in the supply chain around games development;
• encourage games companies to invest an additional £81million in development expenditure;
• contribute an additional £74 million in tax revenues over 5 years;
• help 125 studios (18 per cent of total);
• increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by an additional £178 million.  

Support for the GIF 

TIGA found strong support for the GIF in a survey of games developers in 2016:

• 73 per cent believed the GIF would allow them to create original games IP that will otherwise be difficult or impossible to develop.
• 46 per cent said the GIF would allow them to retain more ownership in new games IP.
• 40 per cent believed that the GIF would enable them to negotiate stronger distribution or publishing deals.
• 40 per cent thought that the GIF would make their companies more attractive to new investors.
• 58 per cent were positive about the GIF's ability to increase their company's long-term self-sufficiency
• 56 per cent felt it would enable them to grow their headcount.
• 90 per cent of micro-small companies, at whom the GIF is targeted, believed the GIF would have a positive impact. No studios thought it would have a negative impact.