The UK Games Industry, Then And Now

The United Kingdom is where I would persoanlly be based so most of my industry research will be more relvent to the UK.

1970s is where the video games industary first began with the first release of the arcade genre, in 1971 Atari released the first commercially successful video game which was Pong which sold over 20,000 arcade cabients of thsi version. one of the most noted sales occued during 1978 when Space invaders first launchedit went to sell over 350,000 arcade cabinets worldwide and buy 1982 generate a revenue of $2 billion this increased in the1980s known as the golden age of video arcade games, the arcade machines/cabinets in America increased from $50 million in 1978 to $900 million by the time of 1981 this was a massive point for the video games industry, the most successful video game to be released within the 1980s was Namco's PacMan massivly known even now which sold over 400,000 arcade cabinets at this point in time video game arcade cabinets were still a massive part of the games industry.

The 1980s saw the first home computer ZX80 which was priced under £100 within the United Kingdom, it brought forward the home computer industary massivly, sales of the ZX80 hit about 50,000 which was massive as this never happened before for previous home comptuers, this was because it was set at a very affordable price at that time, Next was the ZX 81 which was very successful and sold over 400000 units. The introduction of coloured home computer system was seen in 1982 from the ZX Spectrum which was developed by Clive Sinclair, over 5 million were sold this encouraged other various compaines to produce home computer such as the BBC this made for a bigger industtry and then led to small companies which were just starting out to produce software.

 The 1990s the video games industry saw its first massive technological advancement which including the first Cd based storage and software which was avalible, 3D graphics adapted within the video games alongside advancment in GUI based operating systems, We also saw the first time we had mobile gaming although it was very basic, its where it bagan and now its one of the most popular and most accessible gaming options for consumers.

The Games industry Here and now

The United Kingdom is Europes leading video game market and is the third largest in the world regarding our overall success, America and Japan are the top to largest in the video game market sector, In 2009 the UKs profits grew to a massive extent where they exceeded that of the film industry, The UK as a whole offers over 7000 jobs within the UK industry, there are many well known fanchises which have been are are being developed within the UK, in-turn this will bring foruth more job oppotunities. Canada overtook the UK with empolment growth in 2010. Tax breaks the UK games industry will hugly benefit from a 25% corporation on the tax relied rate.

The industry in its current state seems to be growing and growing espeically with the growth of Indie studios developing more and more games with the help of the Next generation of console gaming witht he Xbox One and Playstation 4 we should see an overall increase in software and jobs within the UKs games industry.