GameHorizon goes national

With its third two-day Newcastle conference just finished, North East trade group GameHorizon has announced plans to expand its membership remit across the UK.

GameHorizon is six years old, and boasts a set of key members from the local games industry, running networking events. Current members include the likes of Eutechnyx, Ubisoft Reflections and Mere Mortals.

Until today, GameHorizon’s remit was strictly on the North East as part of Codeworks, the ‘centre for digital innovation in the North East’ funded by One NorthEast.

Now the organisation wants companies across the UK to join its ranks.

GameHorizon says the move "can help to strengthen the position of the UK’s games industry on the global stage", citing this week’s GameHorizon Conference as being proof it can attract delegates from across the world.

But it’s just one event in a busy games industry calendar, which is already packed with conferences and networking events for the trade (disclaimer: Develop is published by Intent Media, which runs the London Games Confernece and works with Tandem Events on the Develop Conferences in Brighton and Liverpool).

And it’s not yet clear how the now national GameHorizon organisation is positioning itself in an industry which already has two trade associations (Tiga for developers and ELSPA for publishers) – and which has been accused by the Government on a number of occasions for not seeming unified, and instead fractured, due to having multiple trade bodies.

In a statement Carri Cunliffe, head of GameHorizon said of the widened remit: “GameHorizon has already attracted international paying members from the games industry and we are now formally opening our network to help companies to develop long term working relations and encourage collaboration.”

Darren Jobling, COO at Eutechnyx and GameHorizon chairman added: “I am personally delighted that GameHorizon has responded to demand and extended membership to game development related companies across the whole of the UK.

"GameHorizon is all about utilising a network of collaboration opportunities and sources of practical advice to create better businesses, including this week’s GameHorizon conference with senior executives from throughout the world.”