The Games Up? campaign is backed by over 200 companies representing over 75 percent of the UK games industry, reports Develop, but 15 key UK game studios are driving the effort forward - Bizarre Creations (Activision), Blitz, Codemasters, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Exient, Frontier Developments, Microsoft Games Studios, NCSoft, Real Time Worlds, Relentless Software, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Europe, Sports Interactive (Sega), Take Two Interactive, Ubisoft. Independent developer trade association Tiga and publisher association ELSPA are also on board.

Develop says that Games Up? will lobby the media and politicians about what its representatives feel is an uneven playing field that exists between the development sector in the UK and in other regions where governments offer tax relief and incentives to studios.

37.5 percent tax rebates offered in the Quebec region, the US state of Georgia’s decision to introduce a 20-30 percent tax refund and similar European initiatives in France will be cited as evidence of the increasingly uneven playing field.

The Games Up? campaign will also focus on raising awareness of skills shortages in the UK development sector, and push the case for better further education in the maths, physics and computer science fields.