Boosting European Games Industry

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Once the economic force of Creative Industries (CI) was showcased by several studies,the development of strong digital+interactive media strategies is still high on the agenda throughout Europe. Especially the digital games market is a fast growing market within CI:The global demand for digital games is expected to grow 10% annually in the next years.Today the production of dig.games is an internat.industry.By now,the European games industry contributes more than 3,5bn Euro p.a.to the economy and employs more than 100.000 people,including 60.000 skilled jobs. Games could represent a new source of growth for Europ.economy but many regions are still missing adequate policies+funding schemes which could sustain this market.Further,funding+support mechanisms often do not meet the special needs of the small+innovative game developers. Aim of the BOO-Games project is to support the pub.reg.development authorities in understanding the importance of the games industry for the Europ.economy. Particularly, it will focus on the challenges policy makers are either not yet aware of or which they are already facing,as game relevant questions move up on the political agenda due to their economical+societal impact.Thus the project will centre on different elements,among them: Public funding,private investment incentives,talent incubation,cluster development +improvement of public perception of digital games potential as well as risk management for public authorities in the communication on game related matters.Matching together regions more advance in this field (as France,UK) with regions with less experience,the project will promote mutual learning and by mean of interreg.cooperation it will improve the effectiveness of local development policies targeting the digital+interactive media strategy. To reach these objectives the project will: 1. Conduct a Reg.Analysis to identify the policies+the support instruments already present 2. Organize 3Study Visits for pub.authorities+ partners to regions which have already developed policies to sustain the game sector (FR, DE, UK) 3. Develop 5 Thematic Seminars (TM) for pub.authorities+project partners on relevant topics identified by the consortium.Since the games industry is facing common issues all over Europe, the TM will be an opportunity to define common solutions+learn from each other. 4. Develop a Good Practice Guide that will collect the good practices identified.It will be disseminated around Europe to allow regions not involved in the consortium to benefit from the project results 5. Organize 1 Internat.Conference in order to sensitize regions on the economic+ cultural importance of the game industry+on its growth potential 6. Develop 1 Implementation Plan for each region to assure that the lessons learnt during the project will be integrated in the local,reg.or nat.policies 7. Implement up to 2 good practices identified in 2 regions+validate a methodology that could later be used all over Europe

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