Ukie times - gamescom 2013

Times

Biggest UK stand ever Join the best

Some of the world’s best games businesses are already working in the UK. Many major multinational publishers have their European HQs in Britain and a new breed of businesses has emerged that successfully sell games as a service in crowded digital marketplaces.

By Dr Jo Twist, CEO Ukie This year’s UK industry stand at gamescom is the biggest ever, with over 40 businesses showing the best that Britain has to offer. We at Ukie are running it to make sure the rest of the world knows the UK is the best place to make and sell games.

Gamescom is one of the world’s most exciting games industry gatherings.

That’s why we’re here this year with our UK stand, featuring the most UK exhibitors ever on one stand, to show the world how much the British games industry has to offer.

The UK already has a proud heritage in making games and continues to lead the way in creating and selling world class interactive entertainment by offering a unique blend of the digital services, skills and creative content that are needed to make the best games in the world.

A great place to do business Britain already has one of the best business environments in the world and the lowest corporation tax rate in the G20 as well as R&D Tax Credits.

We have a highly talented workforce and an education system that now leads the world in teaching people how to be creative coders. Our games industry has been behind fundamental improvements to the education system that will ensure that the UK continues to produce the top quality programmers, artists, designers and project managers needed to make world class games.

Biggest games market in Europe The UK is the biggest consumer market for games in Europe with 33.6m gamers, accounting for 53% of the population, generating 55 million total hours of gaming in the UK every single day. In 2012 the UK consumer games market accounted for 47% of entertainment sales.

What’s on the UK Stand Wednesday 21st August:

10.00am: Pastries & fruit sponsored by Testronic (exhibitors & their guests)

We also have a thriving and creative development scene, from large established studios like Rockstar North and Media Molecule making Triple-A console titles, to large independent developers such as Mediatonic and Splash Damage, to small digital creative businesses making world class casual and mobile games.

1.00pm: Sausages & English mustard sponsored by Multiplay (exhibitors & their guests)

The UK in numbers

Thursday 22nd August:

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The UK video game market is worth £2.9bn, the third biggest consumer market in the world.

The sector generated £2bn in global sales, contributed £1bn to UK GDP and is predicted to grow at 9% a year.

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There are currently 485 video game companies in the UK, with a total of 7000 employees within the industry.

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The UK has access to world class talent, with 56 universities providing 141 video games specialist courses throughout the UK. (Wired)

We’ve got lots to offer, so if you want to hear more about the UK games industry come and speak to us and the companies on our stand.

3.00pm: Scone O’Clock sponsored by Marmalade (exhibitors & their guests) 6.00pm – 8.00pm: Networking drinks reception hosted by Firebrand Games (open to all)

10.00am: Pastries & fruit sponsored by Testronic (exhibitors & their guests) 1.00pm: Sausages & English mustard sponsored by Multiplay (exhibitors & their guests) 3.00pm: Scone O’Clock sponsored by Marmalade (exhibitors & their guests) 5.30pm: UK Game of the show presentation – sponsored by Fat Pebble 5.30pm – 7.00pm: SDI (Scottish Development International) & UKTI (UK Trade & Investment) whisky reception Friday 23rd August: 10.00am: Pastries & fruit sponsored by Testronic (exhibitors & their guests) 1.00pm: Sausages & English mustard sponsored by Multiplay (exhibitors & their guests) 3.00pm: Scone O’Clock sponsored by Marmalade (exhibitors & their guests)

and visit Exclusive interviews inside: Come us in Hall 4.2 at Andy Payne OBE: “if you are in the business of games then it is Destination Köln, no question.”

Ian Livingstone CBE: “Politicians now understand the cultural and economic importance of the games industry”

Fergal Gara, Sony’s VP and MD UK & Ireland, outlines their strategy of ‘by gamers, for gamers.’

>> page 10

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>> page 16

Stand Number A018 – B019

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Ukie Times

On the UK Stand: Atomicom

omuk

Audiomotion Studios

OnLive

Born Ready Games

OPM Response

Curve

Osborne Clarke

Dead Good Media

Player Research

Drop Dead Interactive

Playmob

Exient

Pqube

Fat Pebble

Reloaded Productions

Fayju

Remode

Firebrand Games

Revolution Software

Focus Multimedia

RIE STUDIOS

Four Door Lemon

Ripstone

GamesAnalytics

Rising Star Games

GameSparks

Scottish Development International

GlobalStep

Secret Sauce

Intent Media

Tangentix

IT World Services

Team17

Kempt

Testronic

Kuju Entertainment

UK Trade & Investment

Marmalade

Ukie

Mastertronic Group

Universally Speaking

MPG Universal

Venatus Media

Multiplay

Vogue Distribution

Wanted

Have you seen these members of Ukie staff on the UK stand?

CEO

@Doctoe

Jo Twist CEO

nDreams

askaboutgames.com : a resource for all UK games businesses

With games now being played by more people than ever, particularly children, parents inevitably have lots of questions about which games are suitable, which are best for certain age groups and what all the technical jargon means.

The askaboutgames.com website was created to answer all these questions and to be the first point of call for families looking for information on parental controls, age ratings and safe family gaming, as well as giving the views of fellow family gamers and allowing them to ask questions.

“askaboutgames.com is a great resource that I’d recommend all UK games businesses take advantage of ” The site, edited by Andy Robertson of Family Gamer TV, has been visited over a quarter of a million times and is a resource for all UK games businesses to use to help them communicate about

@ukiesam

Sam Collins Head of Commercial

@ukie_lex

Alexa Turness Events Manager

safe and sensible gaming.

Many UK businesses are already seeing the benefit of directing consumers to askaboutgames.com, including Sports Interactive’s Miles Jacobson: “askaboutgames.com is a great resource that I’d recommend all UK games businesses take advantage of. We now direct consumers to askaboutgames. com from our websites and through our games packaging as a one stop shop for information about how to play games safely and sensibly.”

To get hold of an askaboutgames.com asset pack please, visit http://www. askaboutgames.com/ask-about-gamespartners/.

@ukielex @ukiekim

@ukielex Richard Enticknap

@ukierichie

Richie Enticknap Kim Blake Talent Development Community & Public Relations Officer Co-ordinator

Ukie Times

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Opening a new can of worms Bringing the stream to life Team17 is what the trade press would call an “industry veteran” having been in the video games business for twenty three years. Formed in 1990 the company was in the vanguard of the Amiga age with classic titles such as Body Blows, Project X, Alien Breed and Superfrog. The company struck gold in 1995 when it released Worms - the game has since appeared on over twenty different platforms.

“Team17 understands the different markets and caters to the strengths of each platform” Team17 is both a development studio and a publisher. In 2007 the company was one of the first to make the decision to become a digital publisher. The first game to be sold electronically was Worms on XBLA and since then Team17 has gone on to sell its games on XBLA, PlayStation Network, Steam, the App Store, Google Play, Amazon and many more digital platforms.

Team17 is fiercely independent. Known internally as Teamsters, the privately-

owned company has a great mix of experienced staff and enthusiastic new talent who have recently moved into spacious new offices. The business is lean, agile and the staff of around seventy work smart to achieve impressive results. A friendly yet professional attitude makes Team17 a great place to work.

2013 is an exciting year for the business.

All-new Worms games are set to appear on mobile (Worms 3) and PC (Worms Clan Wars) while a classic is reimagined in the shape of Superfrog HD. Team17 understands different markets, be it PC, console or mobile, and caters to the strengths of each platform from both the development and publishing aspects.

Gamescom has arrived at a very busy and exciting time for Team17. The company is keen to show off its latest releases, forge new relationships, cut deals and fly the flag for Britain.

OnLive is the leading on-demand video gaming platform delivering consolequality games to users across multiple devices. They have been intentionally quiet for the last six months says Bruce Grove, General Manager OnLive UK: “We have been spending our time completely restructuring around a number of strategic hires and new business models”.

And this approach is now being backed up by some impressive figures from Bruce: “Since we launched our pioneering technology in 2010 with 18 games, the platform has continued to expand and develop. Now, more than 3 million registered users have instant access to over 300 games from their PC, Mac, Smart TV, and Android devices.”

Maintaining this level of service could be a challenge but OnLive have proven that they can deliver as Bruce explains: “One of the most important successes to us is having zero downtime since launch.

While this might sound insignificant, it’s actually hugely impressive when you look at the infrastructure involved and, more importantly, because OnLive is the first service of its kind it’s also vital for consumer confidence.”

OnLive sees 2013 as an unprecedented year for the games industry and they intend to be part of the excitement:

“We’re entering a period unlike any previously seen,” says Bruce “So much is happening all at the same time, it’s like gaming’s Big Bang.”

“Later this year next gen consoles start their transition of huge install bases, cheap Android consoles and smart TVs, possibly Apple and Google making a play for the wider gaming audience in the living room, and disruptive services like OnLive smashing the walled garden approach, making it easier and more convenient for people to play games wherever they are, on whatever device they choose.”

To Bruce, gamescom is all about networking and doing business: “At gamescom this year, we are engaging with our publisher and indie studio partners to discuss the next steps for OnLive and its technology ahead of a number of announcements planned for later in the year.”

Whilst Onlive’s business mission is clear, Bruce and James Beaven, who runs OnLive’s European communications, are also riding back from Cologne to Brighton in support of GamesAid (search the GamesAid justgiving.com page for details). Both are up for the challenge but as Bruce says “sponsorship and donations of Assos Chamois Cream will be gratefully received”.

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Ukie Times

Bring on the revolution The creators of the hugely successful Broken Sword series, Revolution Software are Europe’s premier adventure games company (to date Broken Sword has had over 5 million downloads on iOS alone).

Revolution’s COO Noirin Carmody told us they are looking forward to gamescom this year: “2013 is an exciting year for us, we will be presenting our latest game from the Broken Sword Series, Broken Sword - The Serpent’s Curse to members of the press and industry partners.

Noirin is equally excited about being part of the UK’s games sector: “The UK interactive gaming sector has a huge heritage as a creative force, this continues today and is witnessed by the number of new startups. These new teams bring with them fresh ideas, new ways of harnessing technology and digital distribution methods to reach the ever increasing global gaming audience.”

Turning to the crowd But Revolution are never scared to innovate themselves, recently embracing crowdfunding as a new way of financing the latest Broken Sword, which ended up as one of the

most successful European kickstarter projects so far undertaken.

And with a team of 30 plus spread across the world they also welcome new ways of working in a digital world, as Noirin explains: “Whilst our core team is based in York, we have people working in the Ukraine, North America, Europe, Scotland and other parts of the UK who could be described as our virtual team. Most of the team are based at the Revolution office in York for part of the week but the remaining time they work from home and we communicate with them online.”

But Noirin stresses that there’s no substitute for meeting face to face and states that this is why they’re out at gamescom: “gamescom is a great opportunity for us to meet and build on our existing networks.

“It’s so important for us to be able to present in person and we are delighted to be part of the UK development and publishing community who will be present in Cologne. We see this as a great opportunity for us to stand alongside fellow UK companies and showcase our product.”

Reloading APB Reloaded Productions are the team behind the successful re-launch of APB: Reloaded.

Whilst APB gave them a great core product to work with, Reloaded Productions’ Melissa Knox explains that “the key to our success has been listening to what the game’s community wants and then rapidly updating the game to satisfy player requests”.

This means lots of work for the Reloaded Productions team but Melissa says they “have a multinational team of passionate and creative individuals who are dedicated to fulfilling the aggressive update schedule that APB: Reloaded demands”.

“The key to our success has been listening to what the game’s community wants and then rapidly updating the game to satisfy player requests”

Another vital element to Reloaded Productions’ success is creating productive working relationships with partners around the world and that’s why they’re at gamescom: to exchange information and develop relationships with other businesses throughout Europe.

As Melissa explains, Reloaded continue to set their sights high: “We want to seize on the opportunities presented by new technology and the shift from a publisher-centric industry. We are focused on brand expansion, team growth and establishing and maintaining a constant and consistent number of users and a dedicated playerbase.”

Letting off fireworks Remode Studios are a great example of the kind of small game studio, turning out top quality content, that is operating in the UK today. Ella Romanos, Remode’s CEO, explains the brief history of the business: “The company is owned by myself and Martin Darby, we started the company from University.

I’m a programmer (originally!) and he is a designer. We now have 18 people in our beautiful Plymouth studio, and we’re growing quite fast.”

Like many other UK studios they offer a versatile service to a range of clients: “We’re an established studio with a proven track record of making games

for mobile and online platforms” says Ella. “We’ve also worked with a lot of brands, done a lot of work for hire, and are now branching out into our own IP.” And Ella says that they’re very busy: “We have just launched a new game called Fireworks vs Aliens which is HTML5 cross-platform, and we’re also developing multiplayer F2P strategy game Burrow - so those are the two I’m shouting about at gamescom. But we’ll also be pitching new games concepts to publishers and looking for more work for hire opportunities and further distribution opportunities for Fireworks vs Aliens.”

Keeping the wheels moving Vogue Distribution is one of the fastest growing games distribution companies in the UK. Last year this was recognised when they qualified for the Sunday Times UK FastTrack 100, as company Director Neil Muspratt explains: “Getting chosen for the Sunday Times’ FastTrack 100 marked us out as one of the fastest growing SMEs in the UK, an achievement of which we are very proud.”

“Getting chosen for the Sunday Times’ FastTrack 100 marked us out as one of the fastest growing SMEs in the UK” When asked about the secret of their success Neil has no doubt about what drives Vogue Distribution forward: “Price and service. Often quoted as being hallmarks of any company but at Vogue we really live by these words. Our

prices are amongst the most aggressive in Europe and they are always backed up with excellent service from attentive and knowledgeable Account Managers and swift delivery methods which span the globe.”

Neil and the rest of the Vogue team are highly experienced in the video games market, having a superbly blended mixture of experience in games retailing, buying, online marketing and of course, wholesaling. They want to meet as many new suppliers and customers as possible at gamescom this year.

Neil sees 2013 as being hugely exciting for the games industry, with digital being a real opportunity:“The growth and development of digital content and sales are fascinating at the moment.

Digital is still in its relative infancy, which makes the opportunity even more exciting. Other than that we have a fantastic line-up of software to look forward to later this year and of course, not one but two new consoles coming very soon, which we believe will lead to the most exciting format wars in the history of video gaming. We can’t wait!”

Ukie Times

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Ukie Times

Striving for world peace World peace. It’s a grand ambition isn’t it? But one games company is determined to help developers realise the potential of their games which capture millions of eyeballs every day and have the power to amplify important issues, big and small.

This year at gamescom, Playmob is championing Peace One Day, a global initiative created to corral games developers to come together on the 21 September. Aside from raising the profile of this mighty cause, Playmob’s own platform gives players the chance to raise money for causes like this via their favourite games.

Jude Ower, CEO of Playmob explained: “We take the pain and hassle out of setting up charitable campaigns to allow game studios to embed ‘doing good’ in their games without impacting on game development time.”

Playmob’s goal is to raise $1billion by the end of 2016 to support global projects by partnering with games studios and publishers, and working hand in hand with major partners to ensure they see the upside in giving back, such as increased engagement and lifetime value of players.

Games for good Jude’s commitment to making it as easy as possible for game makers to include charitable giving in their games reflects what we all know about games: they can be powerful tools to engage people in making change.

“We have been around as a studio for just over 5 years now, however originally we developed games that focused on

training, education and social impact.

After a while charity causes started to contact us to see if we could build them a game that would teach consumers about the charity’s specific goals whilst raising money at the same time,” she said.

Of course using games to give is not altogether new: Blizzard helped the Make-a-Wish foundation and Zynga raised money for Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010, but Playmob eyed a gap in the market - to build an easy to deploy framework within any game to connect developers to charities.

“Our most recent success came within the EA title ‘The Sims Social’. We worked with the development team to pair them with the charitable foundation WWF and release a panda in the game which could be bought via micro transaction.

“In just a few weeks that panda was able to raise just over $43,000 for WWF which was a resounding success for all involved.

We are now working on new campaigns that we believe will raise even more money for their respective causes.”

The diversification of platforms and the ability to develop seamless games experiences across different devices holds much more potential for this kind of integration.

Playmob’s framework is platform agnostic and has been built to make sure players on any platform can use it to donate.

Having had some key successes already, Playmob are keen to spread the word to even more developers, so they can help developers of all sizes make the most of monetising for good. Come and find Playmob on the UK stand.

Moving to the next level UK developer Four Door Lemon have been quietly transforming themselves, making the transition from a predominantly work for hire studio to a fully fledged, self-publishing indie. This transition has only come about as a result of hard work and planning, as founder Simon Barratt explains: “We’ve spent 8 years building up an amazing team, developing our own inhouse tech and building close relationships with platform holders – and we’re now ready to use all these assets to make our own innovative and exciting IP”.

And the newly expanded Four Door Lemon team is now deep in preproduction of a big new game and are out at gamescom to lay the foundations for its launch next year. ”We want to give our new game as big a launch as possible”, says Simon, “so we want to speak to the international press and PR teams that gamescom attracts”.

They’re also considering exhibiting in the consumer area next year and being on the Ukie-run stand gives them the perfect base to check this out.

“We’ve spent 8 years building up an amazing team, developing our own in-house tech”

And of course planning for the future can never stop. Simon will also be using his time at gamescom “catching up with other developers and publishers and platform holders” to make sure that Four Door Lemon continues on its current path of becoming one of the UK’s leading self-publishing indie studios.

Ukie Times

Going off on a tangent Tangentix are here to make life easy for games businesses. The technology that they offer makes game downloads up to three times faster and makes it easy for consumers to try demos of games before they buy them.

Ed French, Tangentix CEO, explains more about the business “Tangentix makes it economic and painless to deliver existing catalogue games as free trials and rentals with an in-game purchase option. Our technology allows existing games to be used, unchanged, as free trials and rentals, allowing whole catalogue to be marketed quickly and painlessly.

Ed continues, “our compression technology allows us to deliver games 2-3x faster than anyone else, and the improved conversion and lower distribution costs make this the lowest cost way to reach new gamers.

Finally, as the whole system is dynamically optimised over the internet we can ensure the best possible sales conversion, so allowing us to offer the best possible deal for publishers.”

From their beginnings as a spinout from the University of Bradford, Tangentix are now growing fast, recently closing a €1.6m funding round from a syndicate of venture capital providers and signing deals with a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate and a PC game e-tailer.

Tangentix also benefits from the involvement of some of the biggest names in the UK industry, Ed explains,

“the company is chaired by Chris Deering, former VP Europe for Sony and Chairman of Codemasters who was deeply involved in PlayStation for many years. We also benefit from the involvement of Ian Livingstone (Ukie Vice Chair and Life President of Eidos) on our board too. David Reitman, formerly of Gaikai, is a board advisor too.”

Tangentix are very excited to be at gamescom this year with a major announcement, “At gamescom 2013, we will be announcing a new route for PC game publishers to take their catalogue to the widest possible audience”, says Ed. He continues, “Tangentix makes it simple and economical to use free trials and rentals to reach new customers with existing games without any changes to the games and without any authoring costs.

“If consumers don’t already know your game, then they love to try it out first, but authoring and distribution costs made this impractical for big PC games.

With Tangentix this changes and we’ll be showing how a much more active marketing approach can work using our unique platform.”

And they’re backing this up with an exclusive gamescom offer, as Ed explains, “we will be running a showspecial this year, where publishers who proceed with their catalogue will receive a 20% reduction in rental fees and zero setup fees.”

On the hunt for new customers Venatus Media is taking the world of online advertising in games by storm.

Launched three years ago, the team specialise in the sale of online advertising in casual, social and hardcore gaming.

Venatus has grown in that time to become the largest independent gaming sales house in Europe with an expert team of gaming sales consultants and an unrivalled exclusive portfolio.

But they’re not resting on their laurels, with a big new announcement coming at gamescom. Venatus’ COO Matt Canon sys “We are proud to announce that we are formally moving our gaming marketplace (Venatus Market) from a closed alpha to an open beta, allowing all global gaming websites to apply”. The Venatus Market system is the first realtime bidding enabled private marketplace for gaming and offers real benefits to games businesses, as Matt explains: “Publishers with high-quality gaming content can enjoy targeted ads from relevant advertisers, plus many worldclass brands seeking to target the highly engaged gaming audience they have”.

16 Years of Award Winning Performance Capture for Games & Movies

The team at Venatus are big fans of the innovation that’s coming out of the UK games industry, Matt Canon says: “It’s great to work with UK gaming firms that are constantly pushing the boundaries of the player experience whilst focussing on making a growing and sustainable business.”

Venatus see themselves as a supporter of the games industry by feeding revenues to content creators whilst also providing a powerful platform for game advertisers to engage with their audience.

“We are proud to announce that we are formally moving our gaming marketplace, Venatus Market, from a closed alpha to an open beta” Matt and the team can’t wait to get out to Cologne this year: “gamescom is going to be a showcase for us to show our European friends and partners the true potential of Venatus Market. We are looking forward to meeting you all!”

World War Z © Paramount Pictures 2013

www.audiomotion.com

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Ukie Times

Ukie reveals new images for global government campaign to promote UK games industry

LittleBigPlanet, Sackboy and Sackgirl are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved

Sackboy and LEGO Gandalf and Frodo unveiled at gamescom as the first games images to be used in the UK government’s GREAT Campaign.

As a leading location for world-class games development for over 20 years, including the creation of global brands such as LittleBigPlanet, Tomb Raider and Moshi Monsters, make your next game in the UK. LittleBigPlanet™ Media Molecule

ukti.gov.uk/greatbritain

The UK industry stand at gamescom will give visitors a first look at a new international campaign that will promote UK games businesses. The GREAT Campaign was launched last year, coinciding with the Olympics, by UK government to promote the UK to overseas markets and celebrate how innovative and creative British businesses are.

Now for the first time the UK’s exciting games industry will be the centre of attention, with a series of promotional images showcasing the amazingly innovative and creative talent that the UK’s games sector has to offer.

The first two of these images, featuring Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet and TT Games’ LEGO Lord of the Rings, have been revealed at gamescom.

And Tom Stone, MD of TT Games Publishing, is delighted that their game is one the first images to be used, “LEGO Gandalf and Frodo make great pin ups for the UK games industry. As one of the leading games studios in the world we’re always pleased to tell people

of our UK heritage. And of course we’re surrounded by many other amazing British games businesses, all making world-leading content, and hope that the new games images being used in the GREAT campaign make the rest of the world sit up and realise just how amazing the UK games industry is.”

“LEGO Gandalf and Frodo make great pin ups for the UK games industry. As one of the leading games studios in the world we’re always pleased to tell people of our UK heritage.”

These and other globally recognised game brands made in the UK will then feature at international trade shows and in print campaigns.

The multimillion pound GREAT Campaign has already been used to promote the UK industry at several high profile events, including the Prime Minister and Prince Harry’s visit to the US earlier this year, where they were both presented with lookalike Makie Dolls by Ukie members MakieLab. The promotion of the games industry as part of the GREAT Campaign has come about as a result of Ukie working closely with the UK government and the images will be used at other trade events. Ukie CEO Jo Twist explains, “The UK has a proud tradition of producing world class games and interactive entertainment and it is only right that our amazing sector is recognised and celebrated as part of the government’s GREAT Campaign.

We worked hard with government to get this done and are delighted to be able to reveal the new images. We shall now be using the new images to promote the UK games industry at major trade events such gamescom, GDC San Francisco and Game Connection in Paris.”

Ukie Times

With global game brands, such as The Lord of the Rings, Tomb Raider and Moshi Monsters and a highly skilled talent pool with world-class expertise, choose the UK. LEGOŽ The Lord of the Rings™ Travellers Tales

ukti.gov.uk/greatbritain

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10 Ukie Times

Destination Köln

By Andy Payne Ukie Chair Andy Payne, gives his personal view of what makes gamescom so great.

For me Gamescom has become the number one trade show for games and is a ‘must attend’ for those who wish to buy and sell games and for those who just want to see what is coming up.

Ok so that is somewhat old fashioned speak in these days of connected digital markets, especially from a so called iconoclast such as myself, but I truly believe if you are in the business of games then it is Destination Köln, no question.

The key rules in business, aside from having an awesome product or service which is a given, is to know your customer and to listen to them.

People buy from people. Trust must be established, built over time and by meeting face to face, sharing information and experiences combined with an occasional social exchange helps everyone either kickstart a relationship or reinforce one. Looking someone in the eyes, being able to see if they understand what you are saying and being able to demonstrate you know what you are talking about is gold dust.

Gamescom has it all. For those who want to sell to the trade, whether it’s packaged goods, digital content, peripherals or services, the business halls are spot on. Quiet yet professional, they are wonderful places to meet and do deals. If you are a games developer

GDC Europe is also there and whilst I personally don’t think it is as good as GDC San Francisco, there is much you can absorb, discuss and learn.

Thanks to Ukie who have built an amazing UK stand, the biggest national stand at Gamescom, Mastertronic, AppyNation and Gambitious are all here. Just Flight are in with the gamers, showing enthusiastic flight and train simmers what we have been working on.

We work with talented games developers and this year we will be representing 17 of them. Our job is to make plenty of noise about their games and get these games ‘sold’ into all markets, whether it is in boxes or digitally.

Most of all gamescom has embraced fans, players and gamers and in colossal volume. A few hours spent in the vast public halls is both enlightening and uplifting and I would recommend it to all games makers no matter what your prejudice may or may not be. This is where you really find out who is playing and maybe who will actually play your games. This is the place that the games can’t hide behind corporate jargon, sales bullshit and PR hype. It’s the modern day equivalent of the Arena and it really does take no prisoners.

E3 has lost its mojo, the elitist approach does not embrace gamers, actually they do their best to reject them. Gamescom is a socially democratic environment and a fabulous tribute to the organisers, the city of Köln and the German nation.

Long may it continue. Carpe diem brothers and sisters, and that day is right here, right now in Köln.

Ukie Times 11

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Charting your digital success story In May this year Ukie launched the world’s first official digital games chart using actual sales data from PC downloads and DLC. The PC Download Chart uses data from most of the leading players in digital distribution including Disney, EA, Mastertronic, NCSOFT, SEGA, SquareEnix, Ubisoft, Born Ready Games, Warner Bros and other top PC game publishers.

“Ukie’s digital chart gives us a big advantage when planning our digital strategy.”

John Clark, SEGA

The charts have been in Beta for the last twelve months but now have wide endorsement from the industry. In order to make sure that the charts are accurate and fully verified Ukie are partnering with Ipsos to deliver 100% definitive data.

The chart is free for anyone to look at but the more detailed data behind it will be available to any businesses that contribute to the charts – it will also be made available for anyone to buy.

SEGA’s John Clark says that they are already seeing the benefit of the new charts: “Ukie’s PC Download Chart shows the PC digital market to be a thriving and successful platform for large and small games businesses.

Having access to it has given us real insight into this important market and certainly gives us a big advantage when planning our digital strategy.”

The PC Digital Chart provides invaluable marketing and business planning tools for individual businesses and the wider interactive entertainment industry. The reporting system has been designed to deliver a secure, reliable and scalable solution with additional formats and territories to be incorporated in the coming months.

Companies are providing data and detailed analysis and reports are being produced for those companies. The data is already helping to inform their digital sales strategies.

Those companies supplying data to the on-line portal will get free access to the entire, granular data within the system.

Sales reports are available on subscription from Ukie to all interested companies.

If you’re interested in joining Ukie’s PC Download Digital Chart please contact sam.collins@ukie.org.uk.

2012 UK Top selling PC boxed & digital games combined (Units) Combined

Boxed

Title

Company

1

Football Manager 2013

SEGA

1

2

Guild Wars 2

NC SOFT Europe

5

3

Diablo III

Activision Blizzard

2

4

Football Manager 2012

SEGA

3

5

Battlefield 3

Electronic Arts

16

6

The Sims 3

Electronic Arts

4

7

Mass Effect 3

Electronic Arts

13

8

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Electronic Arts

11

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The Sims 3: Supernatural

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14 Ukie Times

Funding the talent pipeline A new government funding scheme will help the best new talent to find trainee positions in games companies.

www.gamesparks.com

The new Trainee Finder scheme, administered by Creative Skillset, gives games businesses access to the best trainees, part-funded by the government’s Skills Investment Fund (SIF). For each £1 employers spend on SIF related schemes, Creative Skillset will match with £1 from government.

“I would encourage all employers within games to contribute to the SIF and register for Trainee Finder.”

Ian Livingstone CBE, Life President of Eidos and Ukie vice Chair, explains why the scheme is so important, “The need for new skills and new talent is essential if we are going to grow and compete globally. Creative Skillset, together with Ukie and TIGA, are united on this mission and are delighted to see our brightest new talent will be matched with industry through Trainee Finder.”

The scheme is open to UK games businesses, as Ian explains, “I would encourage all employers within games to contribute to the SIF and register for Trainee Finder.”

If you want to sign up as an individual trainee you must have completed a relevant degree course accredited with the Creative Skillset Tick in the last 18 months or hold two testimonials from industry. (See which courses have a Creative Skillset Tick http:// w w w.cre at ivesk i l ls et.org/games/ accreditation/) Games employers can register with the scheme to get access to Trainee Finder via Creative Skillset’s website (www. creativeskillset.org/sif) – this will enable businesses to review the trainees and invite candidates for interview.

Placements can last up to a year with businesses receiving up to 50% contribution to the trainee placement for the first six months followed by 25% over the remaining six months.

Creative Skillset will actively encourage a diverse pool of applicants through the testimonials, working with industry organisations that support diversity in the workforce.

Shining a spotlight on UK talent

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Visit us at Gamescom Hall 04.2, stand A018- B019 Cologne: 21st - 25th August www.gamesparks.com

Ukie are bringing an exciting new award to gamescom this year, honouring the UK’s wealth of development talent.

They’ll be awarding the new UK Game of the Show prize, supported

by UK Trade & Investment, to the UK based developer that best reflects the remarkable skill and unique imaginative talent of UK developers today. As a trade body supporting the games industry in the UK, Ukie do all they can to help shine a spotlight on up and coming home talent and champion them to the wider industry overseas.

“There’s so much exciting new talent in the UK games industry at the moment making truly innovative games” To be considered for the UK Game of the Show, a company must be a UK based developer, be developing a game on any platform, that has not yet been released to the public and must be on show at gamescom.

“There’s so much exciting new talent in the UK games industry at the moment making truly innovative games”, said

Jo Twist, CEO of Ukie. “We believe that new developers deserve support and recognition, especially abroad.

The Ukie UK Game of the Show award was conceived to do just that celebrate the accomplishments of this next generation of developers in an international Expo setting and so put them in the international spotlight.’

Judging will take place throughout gamescom by expert representatives from Fat Pebble, Develop magazine and Ukie. The winning developer will be announced during a drinks reception at the UK Industry Stand on the penultimate day of the business expo. Their game and company will also be press released by Ukie and profiled in Develop magazine.

Winners will also receive 6 months’ free membership of Ukie.

Make sure you come along to the UK industry stand in business hall 4.2, stand number A018 from 5:30pm on Thursday 22 August to see the inaugural Game of the Show award winner announced.

Ukie Times 15

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For more information or to arrange a meeting: info@playerresearch.com

PS4: ‘by gamers for gamers’ 16 Ukie Times

We talk to the man in charge of PlayStation in the UK about how he plans to open up the PS4 to as many people as possible Gamescom in Cologne is always hotly anticipated as the next major trade and consumer instalment, following on from big announcements made traditionally in sunny LA at E3.

This year the announcements made at E3 were all about Sony and Microsoft. The battle for the living room and the attention of billions of ordinary people had begun.

But for Fergal Gara, VP and MD UK & Ireland at Sony Computer Entertainment, a man who has come from the music industry, by way of high street supermarket retail giant Asda into games, there has always been a vision for the PlayStation brand.

Fergal also did an electronic engineering degree at the University College of Dublin before completing his MBA. One thing is certain: Sony prides itself on what message it wants to get out

there, and it is largely shaped by its eagerness to be inclusive.

“Right from the event in February we outlined the strategy of ‘by gamers, for gamers’ and the development community had and continues to have huge input into what the device would be and how to keep it an open platform,” says Fergal.

“For me, that means you are creating an easy to use blank canvas. Take it, grab it and show us what you can do with it.”

Fergal admits that of course, creativity is not exclusive to Sony and the PlayStation family by any means. Some of the more inspiring ideas he has seen have come from small and large developers alike.

For Fergal, also a Ukie Board member, gamescom holds a different kind of excitement to E3. Although the LA event speaks to the world’s players about what they can expect from the new hard and software experience, it is in Cologne that hordes of gamers really get to grips with the new wares.

“Gamescom stands proud and is particularly important,” he explained, ahead of gamescom 2013.

“There’s more of a consumer focus at the event but our presence will be much along the lines of last year.

“We have our Press Conference on the Tuesday evening then, as you’d expect, we have a big stand at the show led by our German team. The main people who visit that stand are the German consumers so we are giving them the first PS4 hands on experience in Europe.”

And showing the people who you want to buy your new wares how it may or

may not transform their living room experience is critically important.

Sony does put on satellite events for consumers in the afterglow weeks following E3’s glitzy global press conferences but, Fergal admits, there could be something bigger in the UK before September falls.

“I do think the UK is in a slightly odd position on this broad agenda,” he says.

“I got out to IDEF [Interactive & Digital Entertainment Festival in Cannes] last month and it is very different. It is a huge industry gathering where people

inside the industry get together and have a chance to show each other their products.

“And from what I see in the UK, there is strong support from the industry to go to E3 but not everyone does go.” As a result, he believes, there is somewhat of an ‘event hole’ for the UK. “It could be that we get the support to take people from the UK to Cologne for gamescom, or else we look at a show in the UK like the successful Eurogamer Expo format, and consider incorporating a strong trade element.” he says.

And that may be because digital distribution and retail means that there is less scarcity than there is in a bricks and mortar shop. This man should know: he was responsible for tripling Asda’s market share in games in his time there.

“The route to market is so important. The boxed product market is a constrained channel because there isn’t shelf space out there to stock an infinite number of games,” he says.

“However, the PS store, which offers a far more economical route to market, means minimum volume becomes less crucial.”

That means they are freer to promote all kinds of experiences, both big and small.

And Fergal believes the toolkit for developers represented by PS4 is going to explode the markets everywhere.

“What’s new in the toolkit is important because it allows the things that have already happened to expand even further.”

The gap in the new cycle of next gen consoles has coincided with the opening up of the smartphone and tablet games market space, a consequent explosion in new players finding games (but not self-ascribing to the tag ‘gamer’) and new companies seeing lower barriers to entry in terms of development timelines, sizes of teams, and budgets.

But that doesn’t mean they will be mobile diehards.

“There is no doubt that the whole mobile space has created extensions and parallels to the market,” Fergal says.

“It has probably tended to make us look slightly aged. If we are to survive we need to reinvent that gamer experience. It needs to be refreshed and to engage people.”

Sony, Fergal says, has looked at its own infrastructure to address this: “Mobile has been simple, personalised, so design principles there have picked up where we might have been lagging.

“I do think the PS4 will pull development focus back to consoles, not necessarily instead of what iOS and a vibrant mobile market is doing.”

“We worked very hard to put in a whole new set of capabilities. I do think the PS4 will pull development focus back to consoles, not necessarily instead of what iOS and a vibrant mobile market is doing.” The preorder numbers show that consumers are already interested in what PS4 can offer them, so where they are, as far as Sony is concerned, the developers are.

Technology has moved on a great deal since the mid 90s with the original PS brand. At that time, it successfully took its place as a powerful machine under the telly. Subsequent releases of the box iterated on that, turning itself into a ‘supercomputer’ of sorts of your very own.

Now, though, times are different, the forecast is different: now we have the cloud.

“The high powered box doesn’t have to be it,” says Fergal. “The cloud means less of the high power is needed locally.” Although this is not denying the enormous power these next gen consoles share, it means Sony seems less concerned with a singular games experience built solely around one supercomputer under the family TV. “This is taking our brand into more devices, expanding the brand’s presence, and offering an exciting technological channel to deliver high quality standards without the need for multiple high powered devices,” he believes.

Bigger and better With the launch of its new cloud service expected in the US next year and expansion into other territories later in that year, there is little to show right now.

But looking at the demo’s of Playroom, it does seem as if Sony is committed to introducing people to new experiences that they don’t even realise they want.

Ukie Times 17

“Right from the start we wanted to be able to show there are other experiences here, not just how good Assassins Creed looks although that is important – but that there is something for everyone,” explains Fergal.

“Playroom is a great example of what the Dualshock 4 controller and the PayStation camera can do. It’s a great example of where bigger and better ideas might well come from: for example, the indie community. What a developer could do with this kit will only evolve and develop.”

Sony is already working with some great UK talent which holds a lot of promise for this strategy. Media Molecule, being one example, whose iconic Sackboy character has become the poster child for the UK government’s GREAT global marketing campaign which, up until this summer, did not feature any homemade UK games brands.

Ukie negotiated to include Sackboy in the first ever official games brand as part of this campaign, which debuts at the UK Industry stand, run by Ukie, this year at gamescom. The significance of this is not to be underestimated.

“The UK is one of the most important development countries for PlayStation,” says Fergal, “something we are very proud of. There is a lot of talent and skill here so why wouldn’t we celebrate that and why wouldn’t we showcase it. We are delighted it is one of our studios that can be in the campaign.”

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18 Ukie Times

Ukie Times 19

Playing the political game 20 Ukie Times

More often than not, politics and political policy machinery can seem like a distraction to what most games businesses, particularly SMEs, are focussed on day to day: making and getting attention for their games. For earlier stage start-ups, the pressure to raise the capital and do the deals to get you to the full-on making stage is even greater.

But the game of politics is perhaps one of the most important games that we at Ukie and our Vice Chair, Ian Livingstone CBE, must play.

Ian is the man who is always at the top table. He has the ear of the top decision makers and helped push through the tax breaks for UK games production, as well as convincing Michael Gove to replace boring ICT with robust computer science.

Political grinding takes a long time and there is no In App Purchase to speed up the process.

We spoke to Ian ahead of gamescom to get his sense of how politicians view our industry, which has so much more potential for huge growth.

“This government has been very supportive of the games industry,” said Ian. “Ed Vaizey has been particularly supportive, and we’ve had excellent meetings with Vince Cable, Maria Miller, the Chancellor, and many others. We are being listened to and are being taken seriously. Politicians now understand the cultural and economic importance of the games industry.

“I think the most notable change is that we are now seen as an equal partner to other entertainment industries such as music, film and TV. We sit on the Creative Industries Council representing the creative industries sector. The Council and the Government are very aware of the contribution we have made in terms of digital skills, production tax credits and access to finance.

The Creative Industries Council (CIC) was set up to be a voice for creative industries to government, and focusses on easing some of the barriers businesses face such as access to finance, skills, export markets, regulation, intellectual property (IP) and infrastructure.

“The Council recognises that creative industries is a major industry sector in the same way that pharmaceuticals is a sector. The Government is recognising the significance of the creative industries in driving the digital economy in particular.

“Previously creative industries were often seen as a bunch of fluffy industries run by luvvies, and didn’t command the respect or recognition that they deserved.”

Growing into a mature industry Having this kind of representation at Government level, as well as having the MP contact programme that Ukie runs on behalf of members, means that decision makers are now more and more convinced that games are a big part of the “growth agenda” for the UK. And why does that matter?

Well, it matters a lot. Getting in front of politicians on a regular basis means we can get games in their heads all the time.

This means they say positive things about the industry, and they look to us to understand what legislative tools can be used or can be eased on the business environments in which we operate.

“Historically I think everybody did a pretty amazing job in building a very significant UK industry without much help from government, the banks or the media,” says Ian. “At the same time we should think about what might have been achieved if we had had the same help as, for example, the film industry received.”

The film industry has had more luxuries than the games industry, purely because it has had the tax breaks for some years. As part of the tax break, a voluntary levy is put onto the credit companies get, which they can opt to put into a shared pot to improve skills and professional development.

This means they are more open to internship and apprenticeships than games businesses, who have traditionally been too busy fire fighting the media and finding money to survive.

“Put out your own game, bootstrap at home, collaborate with someone with different skills and get some water through the pipes so-tospeak. Don’t be afraid of failure. Remember Angry Birds was Rovio’s 52nd game!

Ian believes that this will change.

Today, you can go straight to market, pushing aside the traditional gatekeepers, reaching global markets via high-speed broadband.

Soft launch in a small market and look at the data. If the analytics are good, then it just becomes a question of scale. Of course, a significant marketing budget is needed to get scale. But that is the perfect time to seek investment on the back of good data.”

“We are moving from a bunker approach to being a proud industry now, talking positively at local and national level about our industry, its investment and career opportunities. Sections of the media are beginning to write good things about the industry. Perceptions are changing and we are now in a position to accelerate growth on the back of government and financial support to realise the UK industry’s true potential.”

Going it alone And when, he argues, you have people in government playing Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga, saying games are great, that you can use them in learning, as tools for training as well as for entertainment, then myths start to crack and crumble.

While those myths defragged, his advice for those future stars in the wings is to take your destiny into your own hands, despite the fact as Ian points out that “for every Angry Bird there are 10,000 dead birds”.

“When I give talks, the number one question I get asked is how to get into the industry. Well, there aren’t as many jobs as we would like out there, so I say to them if you can’t find a job, try and create your own.

Tax Breaks In the meantime, the industry waits for news of the most important policy tool aside from creative coding in classrooms: the tax breaks.

“I am more than quietly confident that it will happen, but it ain’t over till it’s over,” says Ian. And in order for them to happen, our industry has to prove that they will increase the output of games made in this country that reflect a sense of British or European identity: “It just seems to me impossible to argue against our case. At what point, when it is animated, does art become ‘not cultural’?

“Of course, it’s difficult for the industry to prove market failure about games which might have been made but were not made. But it is obvious that more games would have been made if the tax credits had been in place, and will be made if there is a production tax credit.”

Ukie Times 21

Inspire the next generation of games talent!

Love your job?

Want to tell people about it? Want to change a young person’s life?

Anyone working in the games industry can be a Video Games Ambassador

What does it take?

You only need to commit to one thing a year: it could be half an hour talking to a local primary school assembly or an afternoon doing a workshop.

“Helping young people to bring their game ideas to life is really fun, and presents a lot of challenges to keep me on my toes.”

As a VGA you will: •

• • • • •

Demystify the process of making games Challenge stereotypes about maths, physics, art and computer science Improve your public speaking skills Have fun and inspire others Access training and support Meet other VGAs

Tam Finlay, Game Designer

To sign up, go to gamesambassadors.org.uk

22 Ukie Times

Age ratings for a global digital market New international one-stop-shop age ratings process nears launch The games market is always evolving and age ratings systems need to adapt to keep up. One example of this is PEGI for APPS, a rating procedure specifically designed for all apps, not just games, that was launched in 2012 to address the growth of the digital app markets.

PEGI for Apps is designed to cater specifically to the needs of app developers and digital platform operators. It is not a new rating

system, it is a more flexible and tailormade version of the PEGI system that is already used for boxed products throughout Europe. It does however have new feature descriptors that inform consumers about certain types of functionality in an app.

However, it is clear that publishers now need a one-stop-shop to get all age classifications for their products in one streamlined process, where they can enter one set of information and age ratings will be calculated for individual age rating systems.

“Publishers need a Currently, PEGI for Apps is used by one-stop-shop to get all Microsoft on Windows 8 and Windows age classifications for Mobile platforms. their products in one IARC: a one-stop-shop streamlined process.”

Games are sold globally which means they need different local age rating systems. At the moment this means applying individually for each regional age ratings system.

Therefore, an international working group, including rating boards from Europe, US, Australia, Brazil and others, is working on a global solution under

Ukie Times 23

the name of IARC (International Age Ratings Coalition). The aim of IARC is to develop a list of questions that combines all the criteria of the different rating boards across the globe into one big flowchart.

PEGI for Apps has been part of this project from the start. The IARC program will provide for a streamlined submission process in order to produce classifications for all participating regions at the same time.

Although these ratings may vary depending on cultural differences, the system provides a publisher with a single, robust solution and takes away a lot of hassle. IARC is expected to be launched at the end of 2013.

The current PEGI for Apps feature descriptors are: The app contains elements enabling the consumer to purchase additional content or functionality when the app is active, regardless of whether the app itself was acquired for free or not.

The app gives its developer (or a third party) access to personal data such as home address, contact details or bank account numbers.

The app contains the option to share exact location on a map when using the app. The location information may be shared publicly or with a specific network inside the app

The app includes an option for a user to chat with other users of the app. These users may operate under a pseudonym or anonymously.

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24 Ukie Times

Video Game Ambassador Scheme aims to inspire the next generation The Video Game Ambassador (VGA) Scheme, run by Ukie in partnership with STEMNET, gives people who work in the games industry the chance to volunteer to speak to school children and inspire the next generation of games talent across the UK. Last year 50 VGAs from different gaming backgrounds presented to over 3500 schoolchildren throughout the country about careers and opportunities within the games industry.

Volunteers have spoken to 3500 school children about games industry careers Commenting on the VGA scheme Ukie CEO Jo Twist said: “Inspiring the next generation of talent is vital for the games industry. We are looking for more people to become VGAs to share their experiences about

making and selling games, telling their stories about how they got to be in their position – whatever their position. Our current ambassadors have done fantastic work inspiring thousands of kids since 2011 and we want different faces - including more women from the industry - whether you are in development, marketing or any other part of the sector, to sign up and inspire.”

VGAs can choose how they want to interact. Once they’re signed up they are only committing to one action per year, which could be half an hour talking to a local primary school assembly or an afternoon doing a workshop with a group of secondary school design students.

Of course they’re free to do as much as they like – but they only have to do one thing!

They will also receive induction training and STEMNET will keep them updated on local volunteering opportunities at schools in their local area.

Ambassador Will Cowling, Principal

Programmer at Sony London, has been an ambassador for almost two years and has seen many benefits: “I have found being a VGA extremely rewarding and a very effective way of engaging young people and encouraging their interest”.

Fellow VGA Sebastian Long, User Researcher at Player Research in Brighton, also said “As a VGA I aim to broaden the horizons of the students to consider not just how something functions (at a software level in programming terms), but

how something feels to use. The visits and activities I have completed have been very rewarding.”

You can sign up as a VGA at www. gamesambassadors.org.uk.

The website also provides support for existing VGAs; a way of sharing advice; a chance to network with other VGAs and a simple way for local schools to request a visit from their local games businesses. Or talk to Kim Blake from Ukie on the UK stand.

Being a Video Game Ambassador is rewarding in many ways Here VGA Alex Darby, Technical Director at Coventry’s Gamer Camp, talks about his experiences.

member of FreeStyleGames, creators of DJ Hero. After DJ Hero and DJ Hero 2 – which are the only games I’ve ever worked on that I still enjoyed playing when they were finished - I took the decision to leave the glitzy world of AAA development to become a stay at home dad and part time indie developer.

What’s your background?

You then made the step in to games education, how did this happen?

I began working in the video game industry in 1996. I have been a programmer for all of that time, and was a game designer for the first 6 years.

I was involved in starting, growing, and selling a game development studio, and I am now a video game educator as my paid day job which funds my indie developer habit (my game is as yet unannounced).

How did you get into the games industry?

I had a fairly typical route into the video game industry for someone of my age. I studied a traditional Computer Science Degree (with joint honours in AI and psychology) and was lucky enough that the Sony PlayStation™ was released around 9 months before I graduated, so a whole new crop of jobs sprang up for graduate C programmers.

I learned my trade at Codemasters and then ended up being a founding

I had been interested in getting involved with game development education ever since I realised it was something that existed, as I felt that my degree left me woefully unprepared for the day to day business of making software as part of a team and I wanted to give something back.

Fortuitously, an opportunity presented itself to get involved with Birmingham City University’s innovative Gamer Camp game development courses when they were in their early stages. I was heavily involved in designing the curriculum and course structure of the “Gamer Camp: Pro” MSc & MA in Video Game Development courses, and am now the Technical Director for Gamer Camp Studio, and the Course Lead for the MSc. What got you interested in becoming a VGA? I got involved in Video Game education, and in particular with the STEM Video

Games Ambassadors scheme, because I feel that as a young adult I was forced to make educational decisions that have massive impacts on my future without sufficient knowledge to make the right decisions.

To be fair to my school and teachers, these decisions were made in a time before the internet – when video games were just “y’know – for kids”, and were primarily hand coded in assembly with the only readily available learning resources obscure hobbyist magazines.

But I gave up studying mathematics whilst studying AS level maths essentially because I had never been taught any meaningful applications of it.

I then had to learn all of the maths that I needed to create games on the hoof and develop an appreciation for the beauty and power of mathematics in an entirely self-directed manner all because I couldn’t see the point of the mathematics I was being taught at school.

My own kinked and indirect journey to mathematical enlightenment has given me a mission as a Video Games Ambassador.

What have your VGA experiences been like?

So far I’ve mostly done careers talks - for example to give information to students choosing their GCSE, AS, and A-level

options and for students preparing their UCAS forms. This has been fun, and is definitely fulfilling part of my mission – to try to fill in the gaps in the information available to young people making educational decisions that will affect their whole lives.

However, in addition to teaching young people what games are, how we make them, and the sorts of qualifications they might need for the various roles in the industry I am also making it my mission to visit schools and demonstrate that even seemingly irrelevant maths covered at GCSE level – like cosine and sine – are in fact the opposite of irrelevant, they are the fundamental underpinnings of how we make 3D video games.

I’ve delivered this talk to students at the end of year 10 and it went down really well. The head of maths was enthused about it – he said that he was pretty sure he saw a spark of understanding appearing in the eyes of some of the students who (like myself 23 years ago) are able but have no interest in maths, and that the students in question seemed “much less apathetic, almost enthusiastic” after my talk.

Clearly it’s not fixed the problem yet, but if we consider apathy as negative enthusiasm, then “much less apathetic, almost enthusiastic” is clearly a positive change!

Ukie Times 25

26 Ukie Times

Made in Creative UK

By Philip Oliver CEO & Co-Founder of Blitz Games Studios

Made in Creative UK is a new campaign created to raise awareness of the UK’s world leading game development companies by encouraging developers to include a Made in Creative UK logo in their games and on their websites.

Here the man behind the campaign, CEO and Co-Founder of Blitz Games Studios, Philip Oliver, explains why it’s so important to shout about Britain’s games industry.

I’m passionate about raising the profile of the UK games industry and addressing skill shortages. Blitz contributed to the superb Livingstone-Hope ‘Next Gen’ report commissioned by the government.

Many of its recommendations have been followed up (particularly getting coding

back on to the curriculum as led by Ukie’s Next Gen Skills campaign) and they will make a real difference to the UK games industry.

However, one of the most worrying findings of the Next Gen report was that so few people in the UK (or anywhere else in the world) know that we have such a great games industry and incredible talent right here in Britain.

The knock-on effect of this is sadly that children today are not being inspired to learn the skills required for careers in the games industry.

UK games companies are behind some of the best-selling and highest grossing franchises in the world, but this success unfortunately does not equate with public awareness that there are UK companies creating them.

So we’re inviting UK developers to display the Made in Creative UK logo in their games and on their websites to play their part in recognising the economic and cultural contribution of the UK games sector to the global games industry.

Blitz have lead the way in using the new logo when we included it for the launch of a new title on iOS called Paper Titans.

Over 150 other studios have since followed suit in just two months (you can see a full list at MadeInCreativeUK.com) but we’d like every UK studio to join this good cause. It costs nothing to inspire the next generation of British game developers and raise our profile around the world.

the world to increase exports and raise the profile of an important 21st century industry with the general public.

So if you’re a UK games business please start using the Made in Creative UK logo on your games, to make people aware of the amazing UK games sector, as I know this will make a real difference to our industry in the future.

I’m delighted that Ukie has been so enthusiastic and supportive of the Made in Creative UK campaign. High visibility of this logo will inspire the next generation to learn the required skills for career opportunities here in the UK, raise the profile of the UK Games Industry across

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We create exceptionally high quality digital experiences that entertain and engage a wide audience of players.

This multi award winning company has been delivering animation to the Entertainment Industry for over 15 years.

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Curve Digital has recently developed and published the critically acclaimed PlayStation port of Mike Bithell’s Thomas Was Alone.

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Address: 10 Elm Close, Mapperley Road, Nottingham, NG35AH

Hello, we’re Dead Good Media.

A boutique entertainment PR agency based just outside London, we’ve been making waves these past six months, including: • record–breaking, pan– European Kickstarter campaigns • tech consultancy & strategy • iOS game launches • global news coverage for the UK’s first zombie wedding.

Drop Dead Interactive Ltd. (DDI) was founded in 2008 by Joshua Adeloye and first started as a side project during his time at University to help feed his passion for video games and programming.

He was later joined by: Artist; Alec Woods Writer; Darren Arquette Designer; Reese Mills in 2013 creating a great mix of coder, artist, designer and writer that formulated in DDI venturing into mobile games development.

Web: exient.com

Web: fatpebble.com

Twitter: @exient

Twitter: @fatpebble

Telephone: +44 (0)1865 722655

Telephone: +44 (0)7834 323427

Address: 2/3 Cambridge Terrace, Oxford, OX1 1RR

Address: 52 Dyke Road, Brighton, BN1 3JB

Exient is an award winning Independent development studio with a 12 year track record of delivering high quality games for the World’s best Publishers.

Fat Pebble is an independent games development studio based in Brighton, UK.

Now specializing in Free To Play games on portable devices and next gen consoles.

Our first original IP, Clay Jam has been played by over 5 million players on iOS and Android devices.

Come and find out what we can do for you.

BAFTA nominated and spreading across multiple platforms we’re looking for partners to help grow our Clay Jam brand.

Web: fayju.com

Web: firebrandgames.com

Twitter: @fayju

Twitter: @firebrandgames

Telephone: +44 (0)7769 692533

Telephone: +44 (0)141 2432911

Address: Create Studios, Wyvern Theatre, Theatre Sq. Swindon, SN1 1QN

Address: Suite 227, Central Chambers, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow, G2 6LD

The creators of Amazing Frog a slightly ridiculous, rag doll physics, sandbox game set in a virtual copy of the view outside our office window (currently available on the OUYA) and Creators of Cascade an apparent space war game that actually plays out in a molecular simulation of Alzheimer’s disease.

Firebrand Games is an independent publisher and developer of video games and interactive entertainment with studios in Glasgow (Scotland) and Merritt Island (Florida). The company employs around 60 talented and dedicated developers from all over the world. ​ ince the company was founded S in 2006, Firebrand has worked on some of the industry’s biggest racing and driving franchises including several Need for Speed titles, Race Driver GRID, Trackmania and Cars 2, all powered by our proprietary cross-platform Octane technology.

28 Ukie Times Web: fourdoorlemon.com

Twitter: @FocusMultimedia

Twitter: @fourdoorlemon

Telephone: +44 (0)1889 571228

Telephone: +44 (0)7590 047979

Address: The Studios, Lea Hall Enterprise Park, Wheelhouse Road, Rugeley, Staffordshire, WS15 1LH

Address: Unit 10, 7 Burnett Street, Bradford, BD1 5BJ

BundleStars.com is the exciting digital opportunity from Focus Multimedia, the UK’s leading value software publisher.

Let us maximise your digital download catalogue via high volume, time-limited sales promotions.

DOOR

Web: focusmm.co.uk

FOUR DOOR L E M O N

FOUR DOOR L E M O N

Experienced independent development studio based in Yorkshire, England with technology and knowledge covering every gaming platform.

Established 2005 and with a fulltime in-house core team of 16 people.

With 18 years of successful trading we can expose your digital products to half a million global gamers per month...and growing!

Recent projects have covered PS3, Vita, iOS both work-for-hire and self-published works.

Web: gamesanalytics.com

Web: gamesparks.com

Twitter: @gamesanalytics

Twitter: @gamesparksltd

Telephone: +44 (0)1315 570639

Telephone: +353 83 4455452

Address: 25 Greenside Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3AA

Address: Popehead Court, Peter Lane, York, YO1 8SU

GamesAnalytics improves player satisfaction and increases game revenues.

Our technology uses advanced data mining and predictive modeling to identify and segment significant player behaviours.

Through analytical insight, players can be targeted with realtime individual in-game messages offering personalized experiences that build engagement and increase retention to drive significant revenue growth.

Always looking for new challenges and interesting partners.

GameSparks is a B2B SaaS solution provider to mobile game developers that helps them reduce the overall cost of game development, increase player retention and improve monetization of games post launch.

More correctly GameSparks is a Backend-as-a-Service provider as we provide developers with a range of services that span Software-as-aService, Platform-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service. Our goal is to help games developers launch games more quickly and for less money. Post launch, the game mechanics we provide are designed to increase player retention and drive new revenues.

Web: globalstepgames.com

Web: develop-online.net & mcvuk.com

Telephone: +44 (0)7446 034697

Twitter: @developonline

Address: 90 Long Acre, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9RZ

GlobalStep QA Labs provides functionality, compliance and compatibility QA to over half of the top 20 developers and publishers in the Games industry as well as many small and midsize studios.

We test on all console, mobile, social and MMO platforms, and provide the best quality and responsiveness at an affordable price point.

@MCVonline Telephone: +44 (0)1992 535647 Address: Saxon House, 6a St Andrew Street, Hertford, Herts, SG14 1JA Develop is the leading b2b title for the game developer industry.

Develop delivers priceless trade information to the global games development sector. Total monthly readership figures across print, online, digital and mobile is over 400,000.

MCV is the essential information resource for everyone at the very heart of the games business - and it’s now reaching and influencing more readers than at any time since launch in 1998.

IT World Services

Ukie Times 29 Telephone: +44 (0)17538 21122

Web: kempt.co.uk

Address: 387 Sykes Road, Slough, SL14SP

Twitter: @ChrisKempt Telephone: +44 (0)7701 048632 Address: 31 St Margarets Sreet, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2TG

Established in England fi fteen years ago IT World Services is an veteran export distributor supplying a global customer base of retailers and distributors.

We offer the latest new releases, overstocks/closeouts and console hardware/accessories for Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and PC gaming systems.

Kempt are a unique UK games studio.

For a decade we have made games using one simple principle – The primary ingredient for a great game experience is fun and all other considerations are secondary.

As a result our mobile, social & browser games have entertained 100s of millions worldwide.

Web: kuju.com

Web: madewithmarmalade.com

Telephone: +44 (0)2075 932250

Twitter: @marmaladeapp

Address: Lyon House, 160-166 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1LB

Telephone: +44 (0)2075 533052

Kuju is one of the UK’s longeststanding independent video games developers.

Marmalade is an award-winning software development tool that allows developers to spread their apps to a wide range of devices.

Since 1998 Kuju has built over 100 video games and has specialist expertise in developing for console, PC and handheld platforms.

Address: 200 St. John Street, London, EC1V 4RN

Our powerful and versatile SDK allows a single codebase to be deployed to multiple operating systems in a few clicks, saving time and money while maximising potential audience across a wide range of platforms.

Web: mastertronic.com

Web: mpg-universal.com

Twitter: @Mastertronic

Twitter: @MPGuniversal

Telephone: +44 (0)1480 377470

Telephone: +44 (0)1473 833555

Address: 2 Stonehill, Stukeley Meadows, Huntingdon, Cambs, PE29 6ED

Address: Suite 4a, Broomvale Business Centre, Great Blakenham, Ipswich, IP8 4JU

Mastertronic is one of the UK’s best known electronic entertainment brands, with a heritage that goes back 25 years. As well as being a highly successful developer and publisher it also provides outstanding sales agency and fulfi lment services to the digital entertainment industry, along with B2B and B2C e-commerce and games download operations. Mastertronic Group’s brands include the Just Flight and Just Trains specialist simulation labels; Sold Out and M.A.D. budget specialists, GetGamesGo.com digital download retail website and the Mastertronic label that publishes games on PC, Xbox, XBLA, PS3 and Nintendo platforms.

MPG Universal Ltd is a specialist recruitment agency for the Video games and Film industries; recruiting top tier talent on a global basis, for permanent and contractual opportunities.

We secure mid to senior level positions for candidates within the following disciplines: creative, technical, commercial, production and executive appointments across all platforms.

30 Ukie Times Web: multiplay.co.uk

Web: ndreams.co.uk

Twitter: @multiplay

Twitter: @patrickol

Telephone: +44 (0)8458 681337

Telephone: +44 (0)1252 518452

Address: Unit 7 Whitefield, Lepe Road, Blackfield, Southampton, Hampshire, SO45 1XR

Address: Trident House, 3844 Victoria Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7PG

Multiplay are a leading service provider to the games industry, a consultant, event organiser and promoter to almost all major publishers, manufacturers and e-tailers, such as Warner Bros, Mojang, Plantronics, IGN and SCAN. Multiplay is also one of the world’s largest hosts of online game servers, with over 24 locations across 5 continents.

nDreams is a rapidly growing digital games developer/publisher.

Web: omuk.com

Web: onlive.co.uk

Twitter: @omuk_london

Twitter: @OnLive

Telephone: +44 (0)2077 139000

Telephone: +44 (0)3450 251352

Address: 22 Pakenham Street, London, WC1X 0LB

Address: 105 Oyster Lane, Office #121, Surrey, KT14 7JF

omuk are experts in dialogue production.

OnLive is the number 1 provider of on-demand video game services.

We enable truly immersive, context-driven performance that empowers video game developers to achieve their highest dramatic goals.

Our services include: story, character & script development; voice casting, directing & recording; facial capture; localisation; creative software tools; training & consultancy

The company is the leading global publisher in PlayStation Home, and is also developing some exciting cross-platform mobile, tablet and console games.

Our virtual space, Aurora, has had over 11 million visits from over 1.3 million unique players.

OnLive’s unique technology harnesses cloud computing to instantly deliver the latest fullfeatured, premium game titles to tablets, smartphones, PCs, Macs, HDTVs via the OnLive® Game System, Google TV, and connected TVs. More information can be found at www.onlive.co.uk

omuk, the cutting edge of dialogue production.

Web: opmjobs.com

Web: osborneclarke.co.uk

Twitter: @opmjobs

Twitter:

Telephone: +44 (0)1206 214421

Telephone: +44 (0)2071 057066

Address: Ground Floor, Anderson House, 228 Old London Road, Marks Tey, Colchester, CO6 1HD

Address: One London Wall, London, EC2Y 5EB

OPM is a specialist recruitment consultancy in the games and interactive entertainment industries.

Osborne Clarke is widely recognised as Europe’s leading law firm in the interactive entertainment industry.

They’ve been around since 1998 and in that time have built a team of sector specific, expert consultants, who have established a diverse portfolio of clients from all corners of the globe.

We work with organisations across the sector, from start-ups through to global businesses.

Our experience and understanding of the sector enable us to bring commercially focussed and cost-effective advice to any legal issue or transaction.

Ukie Times 31 Web: playerresearch.com

Web: playmob.com

Twitter: @playerresearch

Twitter: @playmob

Telephone: +44 (0)7825 201921

Telephone: +44 (0)2072 555206

Address: 38 Holland Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 1JL

Address: 81 Whitfield Street, London, United Kingdom, W1T 4HG

Player Research are a playtesting and user research studio which provide insights into players and gameplay.

Playmob is a London based technology company who enable games to monetise their players through links to good causes.

They work with studios at all stages of game development, from concept through to release, helping to provide evidence to support design decisions and deliver the best possible player experience.

Playmob’s platform is a quick and simple solution to integrate your chosen causes to your games.

Web: pqube.co.uk

Web: reloadedproductions.net

Twitter: @PQubeGames

Twitter: @reloadedproductions.net

Telephone: +44 (0)1462 487373

Telephone: +44 (0)1312 259652

Address: Venture House, Fifth Avenue, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, SG6 2HW

Address: 19 Rose Street, 2nd Floor, The Eagle Building Edinburgh, EH2 2PR

PQube publishes and distributes across all formats and digital channels, currently handling major franchises throughout the UK and Europe, including MotoGP, WRC, BlazBlue, SBK, Crash Time and Persona 4 Arena together with NeoGeo, SEGA, and Atari retro consoles.

Reloaded Productions is the game development studio subsidiary of Reloaded Games Inc., an online games company powering leading free2play® MMO games.

PQube also offers Marketing/ PR, Web Design, E-Commerce, Production, and Fulfillment services.

The company’s ARMAS™ platform and toolkits provide game developers and publishers endto-end services, including access to a hard-core games audience, technology infrastructure, monetization, distribution and analytics.

Reloaded’s roster of games includes APB Reloaded and Fallen Earth.

Web: remodestudios.com

Web: revolution.co.uk

Twitter: @remodestudios

Twitter: @revbot

Telephone: +44 (0)1752 263106

Telephone: +44 (0)1904 639721

Address: Mills Bakery, Royal William Yard, Plymouth, PL1 3GE

Address: 23 Ogleforth, York, YO1 7JG UK

Remode is an established game developer for online, mobile and PC platforms.

Founded in 1990, Revolution Software is a world-leading developer / publisher of narrative-driven adventure games, with titles such as the Broken Sword series.

We create our own games, and also do work-for-hire projects.

With 6 years experience on 30+ games, our clients include Sulake (Habbo Hotel), Arkadium and GameHouse, with our work being recognised by Develop, MCV, Edge and The Guardian.

In 2011 ‘Broken Sword’ went to #1 on the Apple App store and was one of the world’s top 10 most Tweeted keywords.

Revolution will release Broken Sword – The Serpent’s Curse later this year.

32 Ukie Times

RIE

STUDIOS

Web: riestudios.com

Web: ripstone.com

Twitter: @riestudios

Twitter: @RipstoneGames

Telephone: +44 (0)2081 335135

Telephone: +44 (0)1517 092351

Address: 167 Northumberland Road, North Harrow, Greater London, HA2 7RB

Address: 25 Parliament Street, Liverpool, L8 5RN

RIE STUDIOS develops creative and inclusive games for all platforms, using leading technologies.

Ripstone Publishing is an independent UK based games publisher specialising in digital distribution.

Based in London, UK, our games are enthused with London’s spirit of worldliness; experiences designed to reflect the 21st century world and enchant audiences across the globe.

Our ethos is built on honesty, integrity and trust; founded in order to create a bespoke service for independent game developers. We are best known for games such as Pure Chess, Knytt Underground and Men’s Room Mayhem.

Web: risingstargames.com

Web: sdi.co.uk

Twitter: @risingstargames

Twitter: @scotdevint

Telephone: +44 (0)1462 860009

Telephone: +44 (0)1412 282700

Address: Latchmore Court, Brand Street, Hitchin, SG5 1HX

Address: 150 Broomielaw, Atlantic Quay, Glasgow, G2 8LU

Rising Star Games is the foremost publisher of Japanese games into Western markets, with over 100 releases in under 10 years across all formats.

Scottish Development International (SDI) provides advice and practical support for companies looking to invest in Scotland.

Rising Star Games has developed a powerful reputation as one of the premier publishers of Japanese games and has successfully expanded its operations into the US.

We offer help to obtain funding for projects, brokering of research and commercial partnerships as well as offering advice, business mentoring and access to specialist services.

See how we can help your business grow.

Web: secret-sauce.co.uk

�

Web: tangentix.com

Twitter: @SecretSauceLtd

Twitter: @tangentix

Telephone: +44 (0)7881 833443

Telephone: +44 (0)1143 454110

Address: Room 44, Gateshead International Business Ctre, Mulgrave Terrace, Gateshead, NE8 1AN

Address: Electric Works, Sheffield, S1 2BJ

Secret Sauce is a games event and business development specialist.

Tangentix helps you acquire new users for existing games, at half the per-user acquisition cost.

We develop and deliver strategic events from high end developer conferences to community building and product launch parties.

Through unique compression & protection technologies, a finished title is automatically converted into a Demoloader™ - a servercontrolled full-game demo.

We also work with game developers to help create a business development strategy and delivery plan to grow their businesses.

Clients include Epic Games, SCEE, Pitbull Games and Tenshi Consulting.

Payment & conversion is frictionless, and you can apply rental and episodic payment models.

Ukie Times 33 Web: team17.com

Web: testroniclabs.com

Twitter: @Team17Ltd

Twitter: @testroniclabs

Telephone: +44 (0)1924 267776

Telephone: +44 (0)2070 421700

Address: Castleview House, Calder Island Way, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF2 7AW

Address: Lyon House, 160-166 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1LB

Team17 Digital Limited is based in West Yorkshire, England

Testronic is a leading global provider of Quality Assurance services for the games and interactive entertainment industries.

Founded in 1990 and privately owned, the company is a leading independent developer and digital publishing company of interactive video games.

Operating globally, Team17 manages its portfolio on digital games, personal computers, wireless devices and the internet.

Operating from facilities in London, Belgium, USA, Poland and Japan; Testronic has served as a trusted partner to a portfolio of leading clients for over 15 years.

Web: ukie.org.uk

Web: usspeaking.com

Twitter: @uk_ie

Twitter: @usspeaking

Telephone: +44 (0)2075 340580

Telephone: +44 (0)1480 210621

Address: 21-27 Lamb’s Conduit Street, London, WC1N 3BD

Address: Knowledge Centre, Wyboston Lakes, Great North Road, Wyboston, Bedfordshire, MK44 3BY

Ukie (pronounced YOU-KEY) is a trade body that aims to support, grow and promote the whole of the UK’s games and interactive entertainment industry. Founded in 2010 (although formerly known as ELSPA), Ukie’s membership includes all the major UK and global games publishers and the best of UK development talent from promising start-ups to some of the biggest, most successful studios operating in the UK today.

Universally Speaking is a leading provider of localisation, quality assurance and audio to the worldwide games and digital entertainment industry.

Web: venatusmedia.com

Web: voguedistribution.com

Twitter: @venatusmedia

Telephone: +44 (0)1480 409256

Telephone: +44 (0)2074 048899

Address: 24 Edison Road, St. Ives, Cambs, PE27 3LF

Address: 29-31 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8SW

Venatus Media is a boutique sales house and technology firm that specializes in gaming.

We run the world’s first private marketplace for game advertising allowing ads to be bought and sold in real-time.

We make connections between game publishers who want to increase their revenue and advertisers who want to target gamers.

We help developers and publishers by providing them with these specialist services in over 60 languages within an agile service delivery, to exceptional high standards.

Vogue Distribution is one of the UK’s leading independent wholesalers of video games, consoles and accessories.

Vogue has a truly global customer base and offers market-leading pricing on everything it trades in.

A dedicated team offer fantastic customer service and unrivalled pricing on a wide range of current gaming products.

All good reasons why Vogue Distribution made it through to the finals of this year’s MCV Awards - ‘Distribution Team of the Year’.

LittleBigPlanet, Sackboy and Sackgirl are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved

34 Ukie Times

As a leading location for world-class games development for over 20 years, including the creation of global brands such as LittleBigPlanet, Tomb Raider and Moshi Monsters, make your next game in the UK. LittleBigPlanet™ Media Molecule

ukti.gov.uk/greatbritain

Ask Jo CEO

@Doctoe

What does Ukie actually do?

We like to think of ourselves as a family that is here for companies, whatever size you are - to support, grow and promote you and your games. As a membership organisation, that means we are by the industry, for the industry in a way. We fight the industry’s corner,we offer discounts on business services and give heavily discounted access to unique market data. We also speak to government and other industries to make sure that the UK has the best businesses environment in the world.

And lots of other stuff!

How can Ukie help me network?

By joining Ukie you instantly become part of a bigger network and family (we’ve got over 175 member companies and so hundreds of experts within those companies). As part of the network, you have a better shout of being introduced to people, to platforms, to experts, or to new markets, because you get to meet fellow members at events, and we can make personal introductions for you.

Members get free use of our central London meeting rooms where you can hold your own event, have meetings with team members, do training, away days, press demos – anything you want!

You can also plug in to one of our six sub-groups, to be part of important discussions that affect all UK games businesses, like tax breaks and in app purchasing

Who are Ukie’s members?

If you’re involved in any aspect of the games industry you should join.

Our members include all the major UK and global games publishers and UK developers. A lot of our new members are microstudios who need introductions and practical help, or just a place to work. We can give you that. We can also put you up for press

interviews and bring MPs in to visit you (if you want!) which raises your profile.

We also have distributors, academic institutions, new publishers, and media outlets that are integral to the lifeblood of the industry as part of the family.

Why should I join?

We know that Ukie membership has to offer real value to games businesses.

We make sure that your membership fee more than pays for itself, through giving access to exclusive Ukie member discounts on services that your business needs. And we can be flexible on how and when you pay your membership fee. For £500 starting rate, you get the same benefits as everyone else. A typical member paying this amount can typically save more than three times their membership fee in a year.

What is Ukie doing at gamescom this year?

We are the only UKTI accredited UK games trade body so we run the official UK industry stand at gamescom, GDC San Francisco and Game Connection Paris. This year we’ve brought over 40 UK games

Ukie Times 35

businesses out to gamescom on the official UK industry stand, including developers, publishers, service suppliers and media companies. And because of the UKTI grant funding we administer, we’ve saved UK businesses over £50,000 on attending gamescom this year. Please come and meet our exhibitors and drop in to our daily networking drinks receptions on the stand every evening.

Come and speak to us on our stand or drop sam.collins@ukie.org.uk a line if you’d like to join us.

How much does it cost to join?

We offer flexible and transparent membership rates depending on the size of a company – with fees starting at £500 a year.

What game are you playing at the moment?

I am completely living my life through Animal Crossing at the moment. This is interspersed with Candy Crush and Drop 7.

Follow and contact Jo @doctoe or @uk_ie

36 Ukie Times

Join Now

Supporting, promoting and growing your business Did you know that more than half of our Full Members are developers?

That’s because Ukie… + Helps you save money! Make your membership fee back immediately with discounts on business services and events vital for you + Helps you with support and advice + Connects you to people who matter + Is the go to body for decision makers + Shines the media spotlight on our members + Runs the UK industry stand at key Expos

6 special interest groups you can join and meet others Secured over £60,000 worth of government money for UK SMEs Created the first ever Digital Sales Chart for PC Helped SMEs save money with free central London meeting rooms and hotdesks

No matter what size your business is or what stage you are at, we are here to help you Membership fees start at only £500 a year, flexible payment terms

Email sam.collins@ukie.org.uk Or Call 020 7534 0580

ukie ad 230x315.indd 1

@uk_ie Ukie on facebook Ukie on linkedin ukie.org.uk

18/07/2013 12:21