A little earlier in the year, we asked our members to participate in our annual Member Survey, giving them an opportunity to give us direct feedback on how Ukie is doing and what's important for us to focus on, so we can continue to act as a strong voice for the industry and develop the services that they need.
At the same time, we took the opportunity to ask a few questions to give us a bit of extra insight into the industry - and now we've had a bit of time to digest everything, we wanted to share some of the key findings in a few blogs over the coming weeks.
So first up, it was great to see a record response rate with 105 member companies responding, split 61% games companies (developer and publishers) and 39% "service" companies (i.e. everyone else). This was also good, as the Ukie membership is also split at exactly this percentage.
All analysis below is on a one response per member basis.
Company Size
Looking at the size of the companies, 75% of respondents were from companies were from smaller businesses employing less than 50 people.
However, we know from the breadth of the companies covered at the UK Games Map that there's a very long tail of small and micro games businesses in the UK, so this dataset is actually slightly more reflective of those more established, larger businesses, which make up the bulk of the games industry employment, which is also true of our membership. Regardless, the stats below clearly show that businesses of all sizes are covered.
Business Prospects
It's clear from our data the UK games industry is confident for the year ahead, with 83% of businesses predicting growth over the next 12 months. As well as being excellent news, it's also perhaps surprising that this has increased from 79% last year, despite any political and economic uncertainties.
It also seems the case that this confidence is likely to result in the continuted increase of employment within the sector, with 82% of games companies looking to expand their workforce in the coming year and 15% looking to expand significantly.
Exports
While the Brexit negotiations continue, we know from our 'State of Play' Brexit report that continued access to intertnational makets is a key issue for UK games businesses.
The survey shows further evidence to support this postition, with 61% of games business generating more than 75% of their income from outside the UK and a quarter generating more than 90% of revenue internationally.
So how's Ukie doing?
We were very pleased to see that our members were overwhelmingly happy with Ukie, with 84% of members satisfied with the work we're doing on their behalf. Of the games companies that responded, we saw a 91% satisfaction rate.
How satisfied are you with the work Ukie does on behalf of the industry?
Those results are great to see, but there's more to unpick - while satisfaction overall is high, we see a slightly different story when looking at whether companies understand all the benefits of membership. The results are still good, but we do see an increase in those who are uncertain and also several members who aren't aware of all the benefits.
This suggests that while members report positively on the value of the work we do of which they're aware, some members have a feeling that there's probably some things they're missing out on too. There's usually a lot going on at Ukie HQ and we're often fighting for our members on many fronts, large and small - but pehaps there's some room for improvement in how we comminucate both what we're up to and what opportunites we can offer businesses. Something for us to think about.
One last thing...
There'll be more blogs to come on other findings from our survey, including industry diversity, Brexit impacts, skills and other key issues - but before we go, we'd like to share some of the messages our members chose to leave us at the end of the survey. These responses and knowing the impact we can have on members businesses give the whole team at Ukie that extra determination to do everything we can to support, grow and promote the UK games industry:
"Ukie is a force to be reckoned with for the UK games industry. Passionate, informed, smart, focussed, driven and totally committed to the future success of the whole industry. Proud to be a member."
"The team at UKIE work tirelessly to promote the UK games industry on a local and international level. The number of fronts on which this relatively small organisation are fighting at any given moment is impressive indeed. The profile of the UK games industry as a global creative powerhouse is hugely advantaged by their constant drive."
"UKIE have helped our small three person team become a global player."
"UKIE have been a great help to me when I started my business. I would recommend that every new UK games business joins."
"UKIE provides the UK games industry with a strong collective voice which is good for us and good for the UK!"
"UKIE should be the model for all trade bodies. They are industrious, knowledgeable, a positive force and fair. We love every single one of them."
