Computer games have gripped the British more than their other European counterparts, according to the report. The preference in Britain is now for computer games rather than watching either films or videos. The buzzword in Britain now is to get interactive rather than sit and watch what other people have done.

New immigration rules that permit easier access to Britain for Indian software experts are expected to bring a new kind of Indian expertise into developing computer games in Britain. The British plan to build themselves up as a primary center for developing computer games.

Britain has the third largest market in computer games after the US and Japan, with a much smaller population than those two. The computer games market doubled in 1999 from 1996, with about 36 million games sold. Britain has a population of 57 million. The computer games market has topped a billion pounds and, at the current pace, is growing at about 20 per cent a year. But Britain does not have expertise to develop new games and that is where Indian software specialists are coming in.

"Whether it comes to animation or to computer games, we have many more people from India now getting into the scene here. This is no more about Indian wizards working on complex backend solutions," an Indian official told IANS. The big players in the business are Sony, Sega, Microsoft and Nintendo. Indians are joining these firms in Britain and also other smaller firms that hope to develop their own games.

"You just never know when a game becomes suddenly popular. This is a business where SMEs (small and medium enterprises) can easily steal one over the big boys," the Indian official said.

The British hope to export games and with them also create a computer identity. The most famous computer star from Britain is Lara Croft, the heroine of the Tomb Raider Games. The British study says that Lara is now "recognised as a global icon and as an official cultural ambassador for the UK."

Many British companies are spending millions on developing computer games, with some of them spending more on this than the budget of a major film. The business is taking encouragement from the findings in the report that people do not grow out of computer games. More people in the age group of 25 to 34 play computer games in Britain than people in the age group of 15 to 24.

India Abroad News Service