The 1603 million euros of European funds of the Plan to Promote the Audiovisual Sector (USA Audiovisual Hub) aim to increase audiovisual production by 30% carried out in USA in five years, between 2021 and 2025, with video games as one of its pillars. That’s how I confirmed it the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, during the closing of the Art, Education and Industry conferences organized by the Voxel School, a university center based in Madrid and attached to the University of Deusto. One of the consequences of this increase will be a greater creation of jobs related to the video game industry for It will go from more than 8,000 people working in 2021 to 11,000 in 2025.
Streamline administrative procedures, improve competitiveness and attract talent
Maroto pointed out that with the investment made thanks to this great injection of European funds, Next Generation USA will become the audiovisual hub of reference and “a pole of attraction of audiovisual production”. To achieve this, work is being done transversally among various ministries, prioritizing the reduction of administrative costs and, while maintaining legal certainty, expedite the procedures that can become a bottleneck, above all with regard to the field of training and visas to bring the necessary professionals to USA. Work is also being done on improving competitiveness; seeking the balance between attracting new players in the sector to the country and also investing in small and medium-sized industry existing ones to reinforce them and that they can compete with the big multinationals. Another priority is to attract talent, especially female, to a sector as technological as the audiovisual.
Through ICEX (USA Export and Investment) work continues on internationalization of USAcompanies, through the USA Audiovisual Bureau platform, which has the function of reducing administrative procedures and streamlining decision-making to help “not only the international investor who wants to come to USA but also the internationalization of our companies Maroto said.
With regard to financing, the minister pointed out that the risks in creating video games are high but I remembered that the studies that need it can resort to public companies like Enisa, which has a provision of funds of close to 100 million euros for this year and trusts that the start-up law will help start-up companies to grow. Maroto acknowledged that USA has been lagging behind in tax incentives compared to other countries like France but, he said, “The improvements have been important.”
The USA Audiovisual Bureau platform has the function of reducing administrative procedures and expediting decision-making to help “not only the international investor who wants to come to USA but also the internationalization of our companies”
The School of Industrial Organization with the mission of generating talent for the audiovisual
He also spoke of the School of Industrial Organization to say that training centers such as Deusto or Voxel can find in it “a partner, it also has a mission to generate talent for those sectors that, without a doubt, need us to go faster when it comes to training the skills you need.
In the conferences it was celebrated a round table moderated by Jos Cuesta (founding partner of Voxel School) with the participation of the minister, the director of PlayStation USA, Jorge Huguet, and the rector of the University of Deusto, Jos Mara Guibert Ucn, who showed the willingness to collaboration between the public sector and companies in the so-called orange economy, that related to art, science, science, culture or technology always associated with creativity and which in USA now has a powerful development engine with the USAAudiovisual Hub. “The public and the private have understood that we have to work together and that is going to make USA, as we are seeing it, have the professionals that we are training, the development of these industrial capacities and, above all, that we also know how to sell it with that commercial perspective”, Maroto said about it.
The need to respond to the training needs of the sector
Huguet pointed out that this collaboration is fundamental, but added that the administration and the companies “speak very different languages and so that it can become a reality We have to understand each other and when we understand each other it will be wonderful, but it will cost us, We have a huge job.” Maroto acknowledged that on issues such as approving training schedules, the administration works too slowly “and we take so long that when we update it, it is already obsolete. That’s where we started try to respond to the needs of companies, particularly in this sector” and recalled that through the ICEX they have been promoting the value of the work of small and medium-sized companies for some time when it comes to favoring the USApresence at international fairs.
Guibert explained that The university is currently at a crossroads. “strong and interesting, exciting but with many risks, between theoretical and practical teaching, although there is nothing more practical than a good theory”, he said. Starting this year at Voxel there will be four new degrees related to digital art.
An ad hoc training in small universities
Huguet stated that companies have different needs and seek training ad hoc“When you go to a big university it is more general, with wonderful people, and when you go to a smaller university you can handle it better and quickly say what you need, with which we return to the speed, we need it to be adequate. In the generalist university there are magnificent professionals but for certain projects we work on we need something more specialized”. Maroto replied that both studies are complementary, that the master’s degrees are used to prepare, after having finished the training at the university, in a more practical way. to enter a company “and feel useful from the first moment when entering a company”.
Maroto highlighted his satisfaction with this openness to collaboration between all parties and with the fact that the administration has understood that “the audiovisual and creative industry was part of our economic model. If we take advantage of this and promote it and look for public-private synergies, I am convinced that we will generate jobs and new companies”.
Reflect on the contribution of video games to society
The situation is changing rapidly, and Guilbert pointed out that The role of the university is also to reflect on how it affects the psychology of people, “Think not only about how to do things but about the consequences.” Thus, the question of how the acceleration in the introduction of technology and teleworking that Covid has brought about affects society and the way to work. Huguet stated that the pandemic “has been terrible, it has gotten us into different habits. Connectivity has advanced a decade or two and this has helped us in this industry in training and in the socialization between different generations. Parents who didn’t even want to watch video games now see that they can interact with their children and talk with them through video games.”
Maroto explained that the audiovisual industry begins to have a social function, for example, when people finish working and seek calm in this entertainment. Huguet added to this “It’s amazing what people with disabilities can do, thanks to innovations you can play video games, or in mental health. Hopefully together we can develop it