TIGA calls for $5 million game development fund in the UK

UK trade body TIGA has proposed that the British government set up a new Creative Content Fund for video games, investing £3 million ($4.9 million) in game developers each year. TIGA celebrated last month when tax breaks for video game companies were finally put into effect. But the organization isn't looking to stop there, and wants policy makers to set up a funding model for game devs in the UK. The company suggests that National Lottery money could be used in part to set this new fund up, and that money could be provided to UK developers as either pound-for-pound loans, or in the form of convertible loans on commercial terms. The CCF could then recoup investments from successful game sales once a developer has generated a certain amount of revenue over an agreed time period, suggests TIGA. Such a fund has precedents, notes TIGA -- Finland's Tekes government backed agency, for example, has provided around $70 million in funding for video game companies, including to help studios like Supercell and Rovio grow into high-profile names. And TIGA notes that there's already such funds in place for other creative outlets in the UK. For example, the British Film Institute invests over £26 million ($42.2 million) of Lottery money each year to support film development and production in the UK.