Tag Archives: Ed Vaizey

UK Chancellor George Osborne and Culture minister Ed Vaizey have said that the EU Commission’s investigation into a UK games tax relief will not deter the incentive from being applied.

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To celebrate SWTOR getting an official release date, here is a sexy picture from a burlesque show. She may not be the droid you were looking for, but she may be the Stormtrooper of your dreams. Well, until her helmet comes off.

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UK MP Jim McGovern has called on Ed Vaizey, the minister for creative industries, to makes games industry tax relief a priority.

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Another British politician has spoken out about the PlayStation Network dramas, calling on the games industry to prioritise data protection.

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Sega studio Creative Assembly is working on a new Alien game for consoles, the developer confirmed in a press conference this morning, and is aiming for the very top with the project.

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Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey has said the UK’s new PEGI games classification system has been delayed yet again, and is now looking at implementation sometime in July at the earliest.

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TIGA’s Richard Wilson has said Canada’s “a major threat” to the UK games industry, something not helped by the recent scrapping of proposed government tax breaks.

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According to discussions set to take place during this month’s London Games Conference, with digital distribution “poised to outstrip traditional retail sales within three years,” 40 percent of the games industry is underprepared for the shift.

Speakers during the LGC will address the issue, along with Nick Parker of Parker Consulting, who believes that 2013 and 2014 will be the “likely dates for the next generation global launches” from Microsoft and Sony.

“For the first time ever, the games industry has a way of alleviating the pain that traditionally befalls it during generational decline, through online gaming in its many guises – it’s a genuinely exciting time for the industry and the London Games Conference is perfectly timed to discuss these opportunities,” commented Parker.

Speakers at the conference include Mark Gerhard from Jagex, Kristian Segerstrale from Playfish, Nick Pili from Sega, Pete Edwards from PlayStation Home and Neil Thompson from Xbox, along with an opening address from Ed Vaizey, Shadow Minister for Culture.

PR is through the break. The event takes place at BAFTA on October 27.

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Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and the Shadow Minister for Culture have each been announced to speak at the London Games Conference on October 27 at BAFTA.

According to the press release, the conference “will tackle the biggest issues facing publishers and developers today: How to strengthen relationships with their playing customers and how to sell products to them in the years ahead through digital distribution.”

“I’m delighted to be speaking to the London Games Conference,” said Shadow Minister for Culture, Ed Vaizey. “The games sector is one of the most successful creative industries in the UK, but it has been forgotten by Government. While Canada and France aggressively compete to attract games talent, all UK politicians talk about is video games violence.

“Yet this sector should be a dream for a politician – it recruits people qualified in difficult subjects, like maths and computer science; it’s regional, with clusters all over the country; and it’s successful and world-beating. Government backing for the games sector should be a no-brainer.”

Andy Payne, chair of ELSPA, Phil Harrison, Edge editor Tony Mott and Intent MD Stuart Dinsey are all expected to chair panels during the conference.

Full press release through the break.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

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The British Conservative Party’s issued a withering attack on Gordon Brown’s cabinet for failing the UK games industry after the WTO failed to uphold claims of unfair business practices by the Canadian Government.

“The Government’s strategy for videogames has been shown to be nothing more than a sham,” said Ed Vaizey MP, shadow videogames spokesman. “For months, whenever we have pressed the Government for action, they have used the excuse that the issue had been referred to the WTO. Now they no longer have this excuse.

“As the games industry itself says, the Government now ‘stands naked, bereft of a credible fiscal policy with which to support the sector,’” he added.

Canadian tax breaks are at the root of all the bother, incentives, the UK games trade says, that are causing a decline in the British industry.

“The Government must act now to support an industry that is world-beating, job-creating and at the heart of our creative industries,” continued Vaizey.

“After nine reviews of the creative industries, and eight more in the pipeline, the Government’s dithering has now been exposed as causing real damage.”