UK videogame trade association Tiga has released the results of its second business opinion survey, with CEO Richard Wilson suggesting that there’s “a cautious optimism among the majority of games developers with regard to the overall business outlook for the next six months”.

Almost 80 per cent of respondents expect their business to get a little or a lot better over the next six months and nearly two thirds of companies expect modest employment growth during the same period.

However, 59 per cent of participants think that the UK government’s policy towards the videogames industry is either unfavourable or very unfavourable, up from 53 per cent of respondents six months ago. Most take this stance because of the unavailability of game development tax breaks similar to those found in competitor countries including Canada, France, South Korea and parts of the USA.

Many developers also claim that access to bank finance remains difficult, with over 40 per cent of respondents saying the situation has worsened over the last six months and a further 40 per cent finding no improvement or difference from six months ago. Over half of businesses surveyed are also less optimistic about the outlook for investment.

“Overall the results of the second Tiga Business Opinion Survey point to a cautious optimism among the majority of games developers with regard to the overall business outlook for the next six months,” said Tiga CEO Richard Wilson.

“However, UK developers are held back by the lack of availability of bank finance and many are set to reduce investment. The time is right for the government to introduce a Games Tax Relief for UK game developers.”

Research recently submitted by Tiga to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport claimed that the introduction of tax breaks would create 1,400 new jobs and trigger hundreds of millions of pounds in new investment by British studios.

In June the government published the Digital Britain report, in which it committed to work with the games industry to collect and review the possibility of introducing tax relief for the development sector.