Channel 4 To Invest $1.5 Million To Help Dundee With New Games Projects

All eyes are on the games business in Dundee, as the region's rocked by the dire circumstances around Realtime Worlds. Companies like Activision and Sony have hurried to the area to stage recruitment events aimed at re-employing the studio's laid-off staff, while administrator Begbies Traynor intends to sell off the company, building a case in favor of keeping APB running. Now UK television company Channel 4 is helping out Scotland's developer economy as well, pledging to commit £1 million ($1.5 million) to the development of games based on its TV shows and celebrity-based properties. According to a report in The Herald Scotland, the channel will work with local developer Tag Games to build games and apps based around the TV shows "Come Dine With Me" and "Peep Show." Channel 4 will also work with Dynamo Games, which will build a Facebook game called Beauty Town, themed around its lifestyle shows. Television production company Headlight Scotland will also produce a documentary on the Dundee games sector, which Channel 4 will air in three parts. The total devoted to Dundee is about 10 percent of Channel 4's digital budget, the report said, a new level of attention to the sector. "It is a timely investment,” says Channel 4 Creative Diversity media project manager Ian Mackenzie. "This is a very positive counterpoint to the bad news of Realtime Worlds. This investment is one example of people recognizing the talent that is in Dundee." Tag Games head Paul Farley said that losing what he calls Dundee's "jewel in the crown" will "definitely" impact the region, but notes "...it is just one part of what is going on here. In some ways the spotlight coming off Realtime will now come on to companies like Tag or Dynamo, who are much smaller, part of the next generation of games companies."