LGF:Games Summit:Lord Sainsbury:BGI:Game Academy

Pixel-Lab's Games Academy idea is getting away from us !

The keynote speaker at the Games Summit at the London Games Festival is Shaun Woodward, Minister at the Department of Culture Media and Sport. He makes it clear that the government recognises games as being an important part of the UK’s creative industries. He commits himself to doing what he can to promote the industry as long as he has responsibility for the sector. At the same time, he made it clear that there is relatively little that the government can do: there is no new money. He floated the idea of a computer games development centre on the lines of the South Korean model or a national ‘games academy’ along the lnes of the NFTS. He also lectured delegates about ensuring that the industry continues to mature. Games developers and publishers cannot ignore concerns about ‘toxic childhood’ but should engage constructively with the debate. It’s clear that he is serious about supporting the development of the games industry; just a shame that there weren’t more people in the theatre at Bafta.

Thanks to <Frank Boyd, Unexpected media>