«To debate even if the videogame is art is nonsense»

Ed Vaizey, former Minister of Culture of the United Kingdom, assures the fact that the creation of games is still underestimated due to a "generational" issue

   If there is a country that has known how to see the potential that video games hide, that has been the United Kingdom. Guest of honor at the Fun & Serious Game Festival, which closes its doors in Bilbao tonight with the awards of the best games of the year, its figures impress: almost 2,000 development studios operate from the United Kingdom, whose industry is already entering 5,000 million euros annually and provides direct employment to more than 12,000 people. Not in vain do world-renowned studios such as Criterion, Sports Interactive or Rockstar North have their headquarters there.

    That's why it makes sense that Ed Vaizey, former British Minister of Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, today led the 6th Videogame Industry Forum. Vaizey, head of that cabinet in the Government of Cameron from 2010 to 2016, stands out for his work to reaffirm diversity in the cultural sector and his work in favor of the digital industries, technology and innovation and has been one of the largest defenders of electronic entertainment as a generator of wealth and employment.

In fact, Vaizey is surprised that, being the videogame the entertainment industry that generates more value, the debate about whether video games are an art is still alive. "It's nonsense," he says. "Clearly, they are cultural products and just as you have good or bad films, you also have good video games and other not so good ones, but these stories that tell about videogames, creativity and innovation make, in my opinion, a cultural product as a technology. "

In his opinion, it is a "generational" issue and he recalls that movies and television have been around for many more years, while the video game is just over thirty years old. "Now there is a generation of politicians who have grown up with videogames, on the other hand, smartphones have made videogames everywhere, so the attitude in the last ten years has changed a lot."