What is Ukie?

We’re a not-for-profit trade body that represents over 400 of the UK’s games and interactive businesses - including multinational publishers, innovative UK-owned studios, VR and AR companies, esports tournament organisers and technology providers.

From small start-ups to large companies, Ukie aims to support member businesses and promote the wider UK games industry. We push for the best possible economic, cultural, political and social environment for UK game businesses to thrive.

Essentially, it all boils down to this: we want the UK to be the best place in the world to create, sell, and play games.

So what do we do?

We truly believe in the brilliance of the UK games industry, and everything we do is about helping it prosper. Support can come in many ways.  For example, Ukie works closely with the games sector to influence government and decision makers, successfully lobbying for:

• 2014 Video Games Tax Relief
• UK Games Fund
• The Next Gen Skills campaign which resulted in a new Computer Science Curriculum.
  
  

Ukie also publishes reports and evidence for Government consultations - just like our Blueprint for Growth in 2015, an independent review of the UK games industry that provided recommendations for decision makers in Parliament for how the industry can grow. Since so much has changed since then, we’re currently working on our next iteration right now.

On top of this, it’s incredibly important to raise awareness of the industry's positive cultural and economic contribution, as well as the societal benefits of games. Ukie runs askaboutgames.com, where families can learn about safe and sensible online practices, parental controls and age ratings.

We also love to show off the industry on the world stage by running UK Games Industry stands at the biggest international industry events from GDC in San Francisco, to Gamescom in Germany. In 2016 Ukie partnered with Film London to deliver Games London, a ground breaking new three-year programme to promote the UK as the games capital of the world, the focal point of which is the annual London Games Festival.

What else?

The reason why the UK games industry is so great is down to the talented people working in the sector. Ukie tries to foster and encourage further development of skills through a number of schemes such as:

• The Digital Schoolhouse (DSH)
• Video Games Ambassadors (VGAs)
• A Student Membership scheme
• A professional development programme.
• Student Conferences & GameJam

So yes, we do a lot to help support the UK games industry. Ultimately, though, the focus is on the fantastic developers and publishers working and selling in the UK. At the end of the day, they are what drives us.

Website: ukie.org.uk

Twitter: @uk_ie

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