if they want to. How do we support those businesses at a national level so that they can do international trade? So that they can reach international marketplaces, so that they can grow? “It has been so incredible to see that ecosystem
really flourish. But the next 10 years is what I’m now kind of focused on, to make sure that the ecosystem continues to be healthy.”
LOOKING AHEAD It’s easy to become complacent with the industry’s successes, particularly over the last few years. But as life since 2020 has shown us, there’s always an unexpected curveball coming your way eventually – like Twist, we’d be wise not to rest on our laurels and instead look toward making the next decade even more productive than the last. “We have seen our contribution to the economy
almost double in the last couple of years. We’re now supporting over 70,000 jobs. We’ve got eight key clusters up and down the country contributing more than £100 million to GVA. We’ve got a great story to tell. “But we’re also leading in innovation, in terms
of how that innovation bleeds into other sectors. Two years ago, nobody was talking about virtual production in the UK. Now, even outside the games industry, everyone’s talking about virtual production using Unreal Engine and Unity. And that means that we’re facing a real talent shortage. We’re facing increased competition from not just the tech sector. We’re also competing with the film industry, the advertising industry and other creative industries for our creative technological talent. “I think that’s added to the increased cost of
production and development in games, it’s added to the increased cost to bring in people from international waters. I think it is a challenge for us. “Also, the more that people are talking about
things like the metaverse and lots of really interesting bleeding edge innovations, and the bigger that we grow in terms of who plays games, the more scrutiny we are going to get. And the more that legislation is going to be running to catch up in order to protect consumers. Consumer protection is a huge priority, as well as protecting minors. But again, we’ve got a really fantastic story to tell, and that’s not going to ever go away.”
THE M WORD The utterance of the dreaded ‘M’ word has sometimes been a frustrating one for anyone who
regularly follows industry news. As with anything deemed to be the ‘next big thing,’ terms such as the metaverse invite as much cynicism as they do devotees. And while that cynicism is often justified, that doesn’t mean we should dismiss these ‘buzzwords’ entirely. “Buzzwords are often very useful to hang ideas
on and to get people interested in areas or ways of being. The reality is the internet is only fledgling, right? And the games industry has really been creating the building blocks for a lot of these social virtual worlds for the last 30 years. And, I say 30 years because I think it’s all about that interconnected human element, so multiplayer or worlds in which you’re sharing social virtual worlds. “I think it’s healthy for us to be sceptical. But
as a trade body, what we need to do is to really unpick the implications of certain innovations and technologies like blockchain, for instance. And we’ve had a track record and doing that in the past, it’s what our job is. In 2012 we commissioned a white paper looking at crowdfunding and equity based crowdfunding, and made some recommendations as to how equity based crowdfunding as opposed to just donations could be enabled in UK legislation. And also regulated in a way that didn’t put unnecessary barriers to innovation and startups, but also protected consumers. “So we need to think about the implications
of these things. Because these concepts: cryptocurrency, blockchain, these things are not going away. Whether they become the way that we do things, I don’t know. I am fascinated by NFTs, I am fascinated by how it fits into our world. I am more fascinated by the play to learn mechanic. And from a personal perspective. I get excited when I look at the potential of the games industry and what we’re creating, to reach people’s lives in different kinds of ways. ‘When we talk about a global
industry, we’re not really a global industry yet. You know, we’ve got the entire continent of India, the entire continent of Africa and African nations. You think about how technology has enabled participation in economic systems in emerging economies where typically people might be locked out of participating.
“We have seen our contribution to the economy almost double in the last couple of years. We’re now supporting over 70,000 jobs.”
February 2022 MCV/DEVELOP | 13
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