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REPORT by TIGA: Mobile is Most Popular Platform for UK Studios but Console and PC Studios Employ the Most Staff

REPORT: Mobile is Most Popular Platform for UK Studios but Console and PC Studios Employ the Most Staff

LONDON, August 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — TIGA, the network for video games developers and digital publishers and the trade association representing the video games industry, today released new data showing that while the largest proportion of UK studios made games for mobile, studios focused on console and pc games employed the most development staff in the UK.

In the year ending March 2016, 46 per cent of UK studios were primarily focused on mobile platforms, but employed just 20 per cent of development staff. Conversely, 36 per cent were focused mainly on PC and employed 26 per cent of development staff. 14 per cent of studios were focused on console, but these studios employed the lion’s share of the development workforce (45 per cent). TIGA released the following information from its forthcoming annual report into the state of the UK video games industry Making Games in the UK Today:2016.

  • 46% of UK studios were primarily focused on the mobile platform category in 2016 (down from 49% in 2013 and 48% in 2014).
  • PC (comprising retail and online PC games, social network games and massively multiplayer online games) was the primary platform category of choice for 36% of UK studios (compared to 37% in 2014 and 34% in 2013).
  • Interest in console platforms (comprising console and handheld retail and download categories) remains mostly confined to larger studios with almost 14% of UK studios focused on developing for console and handheld platforms (compared to 13% in 2014, 16% in 2013 and 23% in 2012). Nevertheless, British developers are still investing in consoles, and console studios still employ nearly half the UK development workforce.
  • The fastest growing new games category is virtual reality (VR), with 20 development companies primarily working on VR. Although this is a small proportion of the total companies (2%), it is now the same proportion of total companies as massively multiplayer online games (MMOG), although MMOG companies employ far more development staff (727 developers versus 245 respectively).

Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO, said:

“Mobile remains the most popular platform for UK games studios, but the surge has subsidised. The proportion of UK development studios focused primarily on this category fell from 49% in 2013 to 46% in 2016, the third consecutive annual fall.

“PC remains in second place, with 36% of studios adopting it as their primary platform choice. We’ve seen a flourishing of PC studios in the last few years, primarily driven by opportunities to self-publish on Steam.

“14% of UK studios are focused mainly on console development and this category remains the largest employer of development staff by far, employing 45% of UK development staff. This demonstrates the UK’s long and impressive tradition as one of the leading console games development nations and the significantly higher resources and teams required for console games development.

“Virtual Reality is the fastest growing new games category for studios by number, but not by headcount. It will be fascinating to see how this category grows ain the years ahead.”

Jason Kingsley OBE, CEO and Creative Director at Rebellion, which develops games for mobile, pc and console platforms, commented:

“Mobile is a popular platform for many start-ups. It is perhaps a less intimidating place to start making games when compared to console and PC. However, it is often harder to generate revenue and so create a stable business in mobile, especially in the free to play sphere. The challenge for many mobile studios is to grow and to transition from one platform to another.”

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