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Tiga and Google have teamed up to deliver a comprehensive report on how British video game developers can access funding in a bid to boost the lucrative industry further.

Tiga, the network for developers and digital publishers, and tech titan Google unveiled their Sources of Funding Report which lays out the options for how relevant companies can seek and apply for financing to expand their operations.

"The survey reveals a UK games sector that is still transitioning from a dependency on publisher and other client funding towards self-sufficiency," said the report.

"As Tiga's annual reports have demonstrated, the UK has experienced unprecedented levels of new games development start-ups in the last few years. Many if not most of these companies have been established to focus on creating original games for PC, online and mobile / tablet games markets, markets that have become increasingly competitive and difficult to thrive in.

"It is therefore not a great surprise that every single respondent accessed at last one third party source of finance in the last three years and all but one accessed third party sources of finance in the last year."

The report also revealed that 76% of UK developers planning to take advantage of Games Tax Relief (GTR).

What is Games Tax Relief?

The video games tax relief will provide an incentive to video game developers to produce games meeting certain cultural criteria.

After the Commission opened an in-depth investigation, the UK removed the originally envisaged territorial spending obligations imposed on beneficiaries of the scheme.

The UK demonstrated in particular that the proposed cultural test ensures that the aid supports only games that are of cultural value. Only around 25% of UK produced games would be eligible for aid. Without this support the number of new culturally British games is likely to decline considerably.

Source: European Commission

Meanwhile, 100% of the near 38 respondents revealed that they had used third party funding in the past three years, while 97% of these groups used the same sort of funding in the past 12 months.

"This demonstrates third party sources of finance are critical to the on-going health of the UK games development industry," said Tiga in the report.

"It also indicates that the UK games sector is still transitioning from a dependency on publisher and other client funding towards greater self-sufficiency."

In June, Tiga revealed that British video games industry jobs have hit a five year high after studios ploughed millions of pounds of cash into developing new products ahead of rampant demand.

According to Tiga, studio headcounts, wider games industry employment, tax revenues and investment have all increased while employment in the UK development sector has returned to levels last seen in 2008.

"The UK games development sector is back on track. Employment is up, investment is increasing and the sector's contribution to UK GDP has grown to £1.02bn (€1.3bn, $1.7bn)," said Dr Richard Wilson, CEO at Tiga.

"The sector's return to growth has been driven by three factors. Firstly, the explosion of mobile and tablet devices have created a significant market for games: jobs are being created in response to this demand. Secondly, the closure of big console focused studios has been followed by a surge of small start-up companies. Thirdly, the advent of GTR is already stimulating growth."