Gaming & Digital Sector

‘£2 billion: The global sales of the UK video games industry in 2008’

Games development in the Merseyside region generates £300m annually, provides more than 1,600 direct jobs and has a supply chain that brings in another 3,000. The Digital and Creative sector in the region employs over 28,000 people in more than 4,500 enterprises. NESTA predicts that Creative and Digital Industries will grow at double the rate of the rest of the economy.

TIGA surveyed games developers finding:

• 63% had faced skill shortages in the last 12 months

• 74% finding it hard to fill programmer vacancies

• 88% believed the problem was a lack of skills, experience or qualifications

• 70% said that greater availability of skilled labour would help their business

• In the games industry alone at least 1,700 more workers are needed over the next five years to maintain the UK’s global position

‘’Yet, the sad truth is that we are already starting to lose our cutting edge: in just two years, it seems the UK’s video games industry has dipped from third to sixth place in the global development rankings…..That is mainly a failing of our education system – from schools, universities – and it needs to be tackled urgently if we are to remain globally competitive.’’

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