Tiga, NESTA Partner For Industry Collaboration Initiatives

UK trade body Tiga is partnering with the National Endowment For Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) on a series of initiatives aimed at encouraging game studios to collaborate amongst themselves and with other creative industries. Part of Tiga and NESTA's five-point "Play Together" plan recommends that developers share staff to increase efficiency and reduce layoffs. They also propose a "search facility" that lets developers and suppliers advertise to industry clients, including portfolios aimed at highlighting new talent. Another proposed facility's education-oriented, intended to act as an information hub for university course and collaboration information, and another initiative also proposes a jobs board for free. Tiga and NESTA also hope to enable the "best creative minds" from games, film, TV and music to exchange ideas cross-industry. "Tiga-NESTA believe that innovation of this kind is vital to help creative industries remain strong and combat the economic downturn," say the organizations in a statement on the Play Together website. "Tiga-NESTA are committed to making the UK the best place in the world to develop games."