From Exuberant Youth to Sustainable Maturity - DTI Home
From Exuberant Youth to Sustainable Maturity - DTI Home
From Exuberant Youth to Sustainable Maturity - DTI Home
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CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSED ACTION PLAN<br />
Action 18: Spread best practices within<br />
the industry<br />
The small scale and wide geographic spread of<br />
games companies within the UK means that<br />
there is little opportunity from learning from one<br />
another. The development of best practice case<br />
studies and open seminars for their<br />
dissemination and discussion should be actively<br />
encouraged. The <strong>to</strong>pics for review should be<br />
driven by industry demand, but should include a<br />
focus on those issues likely <strong>to</strong> become more<br />
complex with increased scale for example,<br />
managing multiple projects and managing<br />
funding partners expectations.<br />
As well as the sharing of UK best practice,<br />
examples should be drawn from abroad,<br />
especially the US and Japan through fact-finding<br />
missions such as those organised by the<br />
International Technology Service. Recent visits<br />
<strong>to</strong> Japan have provoked interesting thinking on<br />
project organisation and skills. Whilst lessons<br />
may not be immediately applicable <strong>to</strong> UK<br />
companies, there is a certain <strong>to</strong> need <strong>to</strong> ensure<br />
exposure <strong>to</strong> the working practices of successful<br />
games companies from around the globe.<br />
Lead responsibility: Trade bodies, working<br />
with ITS for overseas<br />
fact-finding missions<br />
Priority: Desirable<br />
Action 19: Draft standard or benchmark<br />
contracts and deal terms<br />
Clear, standard or reference contracts and deal<br />
terms would expedite the process of concluding<br />
development deals and reduce the chances of<br />
misunderstandings or disputes. Developers and<br />
publishers should work with law firms <strong>to</strong> draft<br />
standard contracts and make them available,<br />
along with checklists and guides for completing<br />
them. Games companies should then be strongly<br />
encouraged <strong>to</strong> adopt them or at least refer <strong>to</strong><br />
them before signing contracts.<br />
Lead responsibility: TIGA and ELSPA,<br />
working with leading law<br />
firms active in the games<br />
industry e.g. Osborne<br />
Clarke, Theodore<br />
Goddard<br />
Priority: Necessary<br />
54 Competitiveness analysis of the UK games software sec<strong>to</strong>r Main report<br />
Action 20: Define and adopt industry standards<br />
Games companies' professionalism needs <strong>to</strong> be<br />
recognised by external parties. One way <strong>to</strong><br />
ensure this is <strong>to</strong> adopt and adhere <strong>to</strong> recognised<br />
quality standards. Key standards would include<br />
ones for:<br />
• Certification of companies meeting defined<br />
criteria for management and development<br />
processes<br />
• Consistent security processes across the<br />
entire value chain <strong>to</strong> prevent games content<br />
leaking in<strong>to</strong> the hands of pirates, shifting the<br />
emphasis on combating piracy from<br />
enforcement <strong>to</strong> prevention<br />
• Copy protection of games content and<br />
evaluation of current and future solutions<br />
against them for robustness and<br />
compatibility<br />
• Industry accreditation of games-related<br />
education and training courses<br />
In addition, high profile support for the upcoming<br />
rollout of the new pan-European content<br />
classification scheme based on the existing<br />
ELSPA system would show the industry acting in<br />
a responsible manner.<br />
Lead responsibility: TIGA, ELSPA and Skillset,<br />
working with educational<br />
establishments for course<br />
accreditation and DCMS<br />
for rollout of new content<br />
classification system<br />
Priority: Necessary