Within the UK, there are roughly 10,000 games developers employed. These developers are highly skilled, with 69% educated to at least degree level, compared with 20% of the UK working age population. These skills are reflected in the above-average earnings for those employed in the industry, whose earnings are more than onefifth higher than the UK national average. 2 It is estimated that every job in the UK games development industry supports another 1.8 jobs in the UK economy, suggesting in total the industry supported 28,000 jobs in 2008. The Digital Games Industry in Ireland In the last seven years, employment in the gaming industry in Ireland has grown by roughly 400%. In the last available industry study, more than 1,400 people were employed in games development and related industries and almost 43% of employees in these companies were aged between 26 and 35 years, with a further 30% between 18 and 25.3 There are a number of successful indigenous Irish companies including Demonware, Jolt Online and Havok. Most of these focus on a single function, such as creating ‘middleware’ - software used in the development of games - or ‘localising’ games for the European market. Many of the indigenous Irish start ups have been bought by industry leaders such as Intel, allowing the entrepreneurs involved in their development to go on to launch new initiatives. Many international companies now operate Irish bases. Blizzard employs 600 people in Cork while Big Fish, Pop Cap games, Gala and Goa, the online games unit of Orange mobile phones also work from Ireland. Crowdstar, one of the largest social gaming companies on Facebook, has recently launched an Irish operation. Ireland has a supply of skilled employees coming out of courses in digital gaming from Trinity College Dublin, Dublin Institute of Technology and Carlow Institute of Technology. In addition to these specialist courses, Ireland’s traditional success in the creative industries of film and animation can be built upon, as the games industry also requires people with creative skills such as scriptwriters, animators and designers. The presence of Facebook and Google in Ireland offers a huge opportunity to the Irish gaming industry, as many future gaming technologies will utilise these companies to develop casual gaming businesses. Policy Recommendations and Rationale Ireland has traditionally performed strongly in the creative industries such as film and animation, and it can be useful to look at digital gaming as a creative industry. However, care must be taken that the funding structures in place are appropriate to the specific needs of the industry. 1. Target funding from the Innovation Fund Ireland seed capital scheme to Irish Digital Gaming start ups.
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Oxford Economics. “The Economic Contribution of the UK Games Development Industry”. October 2008. IDA Ireland: http://www.idaireland.com/news-media/featured-news/irish-games-industry-grow/index.xml
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