Games Summit
October 5, 2006 – 11:47 am
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.
He was followed by Adam Singer who also talked about the immaturity of the games industry. He suggested that it is not yet a true medium comparing the business with Hollywood before 1927 – the silent era. He asked why are games so complicated, why are they so difficult to master and why is there so little diversity in content. It is as if the only programmes available on TV were Eastenders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street and they required you to lie on a bed of nails in order to watch them.
