London Games Conference To Be Opened By Shadow Minister For Culture

The inaugural London Games Conference announced today it will open with an address by Ed Vaizey, a Parliamentary Shadow Minister for Culture, who plans to discuss the UK government's attitude toward the game industry. "The games sector is one of the most successful creative industries in the UK, but it has been forgotten by Government," said Vaizey in a statement released by the conference's organizers. British game industry trade groups such as Tiga have long criticized the UK's lack of widespread tax breaks or other financial incentives for game developers. "While Canada and France aggressively compete to attract games talent, all UK politicians talk about is video games violence," Vaizey continued. "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." Representatives from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are also set to deliver talks at the event, as are industry veteran Phil Harrison, Edge magazine editor Tony Mott, and Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association chair Andy Payne. The conference's other scheduled topics include emerging sales models including online distribution and the increasing need for game developers to maintain direct contact with their audience.