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The UK’s video games industry has grown to record levels over the past year, and at the fastest rate in more than a decade, according to its trade association.
The Independent Games Developers’ Association (TIGA) said that more than 1,740 jobs were added to the sector, which is now generating tax revenues of £907m annually.

TIGA added that the sector was now contributing £2.2bn to UK GDP.
It called for the government to “retain and enhance Video Games Tax Relief” to encourage investment, which has stalled during the coronavirus crisis.

Image: Physical sales have fallen during the pandemic, but digital sales are up
Speaking to Sky News, the chief executive of games studio Rebellion, Jason Kingsley, said that things were continuing to grow despite the pandemic.

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“The good is that everybody is up and working well, mostly from home, but some from the offices where it can be done safely.

“Game productivity is looking good for new titles like Zombie Army 4 and Evil Genius 2 which will be released early next year. Most people seem to be coping well, with video calls and family interruptions being the norm now on calls!”

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Mr Kingsley said there was some bad too, including “increased hassle for IT and systems to cope with people working remotely” as well as “equipment costs for those needing us to supply computers for them to use at home”.
Rebellion has just under 450 staff, with 50 new hires being brought on during the pandemic across all parts of the company, from programmers to animators, and games designers to testers.
But Mr Kingsley said there had been “increased difficulty bringing new hires up to speed on how Rebellion works and where they fit in with the team” due to social distancing requirements.
The impact of the pandemic has generally meant physical retail sales are down across the sector, but digital sales have grown substantially.
Mr Kingsley told Sky News: “On balance things are good for us, though managing so much change so fast takes a lot of energy from the senior members of our teams.
“I think people are looking forward to some time off over Christmas.”

Image: TIGA called for better links between the industry and universities
Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA’s chief executive, said: “The sector still faces significant challenges, particularly with respect in access to finance and in access to highly skilled people.”
He said that 73% of the UK’s games studios were extremely small, having four or fewer full-time staff, and 40% of studios have closed down over the last decade.
“We should introduce a Video Games Investment Fund and strengthen the UK Games Fund to improve access to finance,” Dr Wilson added.
He called for the government to “strengthen industry-university links, enhance skills and training and enable UK games companies to recruit highly skilled workers from the EU and beyond”.
He also warned that Brexit could deprive UK companies of access to talented European workers, who account for a significant minority of the sector’s employees.
Mr Kingsley added: “As our economy recovers, we need to play to our strengths and invest in those sectors of the economy where we have a comparative advantage like the video games industry.”

Instagram is being investigated regarding alleged illegal processing of children’s personal information, by the Irish privacy watchdog which is the EU’s lead authority on Facebook.
The Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) is investigating whether Instagram’s parent company Facebook was illegally processing the data of children who chose to switch from personal accounts to business accounts, thus publishing their contact details.

Until last year Instagram required business accounts to make their contact information public. Facebook says it made it clear to those accounts that this information would be public, although it is now optional for business accounts on Instagram whether they share any contact details.
“The DPC has been actively monitoring complaints received from individuals in this area and has identified potential concerns in relation to the processing of children’s personal data on Instagram which require further examination,” it said in a statement.
If the social media company is found to have violated European privacy regulations then it could face a fine of up to 4% of its global turnover, although a fine of that scale has never been issued.

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Back in 2019, data scientist David Stier found that millions of personal accounts on Instagram which had been switched to business accounts were publicising their contact details.

Mr Stier reported to Facebook his discovery that accounts apparently belonging to minors were showing the children’s phone numbers and their email addresses.

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Facebook does not dispute that some minors’ contact information was shown.
“Speaking as a parent, I want to be assured that the experience Instagram offers to teens is as ‘adult-overseen’ as possible,” he added.
The Irish DPC said its investigation “will also consider whether Facebook meets its obligations as a data controller with regard to transparency requirements in its provision of Instagram to children”.
A spokesperson for Instagram told Sky News: “We’ve always been clear that when people choose to set up a business account on Instagram, the contact information they shared would be publicly displayed.
“That’s very different to exposing people’s information,” they stressed.
“We’ve also made several updates to business accounts since the time of Mr Stier’s mischaracterisation in 2019, and people can now opt out of including their contact information entirely.
“We’re in close contact with the IDPC and we’re cooperating with their inquiries,” they added.
The complaint also follows Facebook admitting that the coronavirus pandemic meant images of child nudity and sexual exploitation have been spreading on its platforms.
The tech giant said moderation levels dropped when content moderators were sent to work from home in March during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak.

A NASA spacecraft will this week attempt to descend on an asteroid and bring back a sample in a 10-second mission.
The Osiris-Rex has been circling the Bennu asteroid for nearly two years – hundreds of millions of miles away from Earth.

But on Tuesday it will try to collect a handful of dirt and gravel from its boulder-packed surface.
The mission, which will see the van-sized spacecraft on autopilot for the “touch-and-go” manoeuvre, will last just five to 10 seconds and hopes to bring back 60g worth of Bennu.
Once it drops out of its half-mile-high orbit around the asteroid, the spacecraft will take a deliberate four-hour detour to just above its surface.

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Then an 11ft arm will reach out and touch it in the hope it can grab the sample.

There is an 18-minute radio communication lag between the location of the asteroid and NASA’s base – so controllers will be unable to intervene.

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If the first attempt fails, Osiris-Rex can try again – but experts will still have to wait until 2023 before the samples touch back down to Earth.
Japan is the only country in the world to have completed such a mission.
It expects to get samples back from another asteroid called Ryugu in December, 10 years after another successful mission to bring back part of an asteroid named Itokawa.
NASA’s deputy project manager Mike Moreau said of the complexities of the Bennu mission: “So for some perspective, the next time you park your car in front of your house or in front of a coffee shop and walk inside, think about the challenge of navigating Osiris-Rex into one of these spots from 200 million miles away.”

More than one coronavirus vaccine will be available in the next three to six months, a government scientific adviser has told Sky News.
Sir Jeremy Farrar, who sits on the SAGE committee, said: “I think in the first quarter of next year we will have vaccines – will have more than one vaccine.”

It is unlikely the jabs will be administered before Christmas, which Sir Jeremy thinks “will be tough this year” and “not like a normal Christmas for almost everybody”.
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But he is expecting data on vaccines in November and December, pointing out that the UK has a “portfolio” of potential options.

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He is also hopeful that treatments will begin to make a big difference in the new year.

His optimism echoes that of Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, who has reportedly said a mass rollout of the jab being created at the University of Oxford and manufactured by AstraZeneca could happen around the turn of the year.

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Thousands of NHS staff will be trained to administer a vaccine, The Sunday Times added, with inoculations potentially beginning soon after Christmas.
In a briefing to MPs on Monday afternoon, Professor Van-Tam apparently said “we aren’t light years away” from a jab.
He continued: “It isn’t a totally unrealistic suggestion that we could deploy a vaccine soon after Christmas,” adding that such a development would have a “significant impact on hospital admissions and deaths”.
Professor Van-Tam is said to be expecting third stage results from the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of November.
Another multinational drug company, Pfizer, has already manufactured several hundred thousand doses of a jab at a plant in Belgium, the Mail on Sunday said.

Image: There is optimism that a vaccine could be available in the next six months
It is reportedly hoping to make 100m doses available this year – 40m of which are destined for the UK – and is planning to produce 1.3bn jabs in 2021.
Sir Jeremy, speaking on Sophy Ridge On Sunday, said the UK is in an “extraordinarily strong position” and the “vaccine taskforce has done an absolutely extraordinary job”.
He continued: “Britain has access to a number of different vaccines across a range of different approaches.
“Vaccines come in all different styles and approaches and Britain has got a portfolio of vaccines, through which more than one, I’m sure, will come through in the first quarter of next year.”
Sir Jeremy was also optimistic about better treatments being ready before a vaccine, saying: “I do believe that monoclonal antibodies to treat patients and save lives will be available in the coming months.”

Thousands of private renters in Hackney face eviction and potentially homelessness as the council says it is unable to make housing benefit payments due to a cyber attack earlier this week.
The council was hit on Tuesday morning by what Mayor Philip Glanville described as a “serious cyber attack” which continues to leave many of its services and IT systems unavailable.

In an update regarding the incident published late on Friday, the council warned it was unable to make some payments, including discretionary housing payments, certain supplier payments, and housing benefit.
Those impacted by the inability to make these payments are being encouraged to contact the council directly.
The type of cyber attack has not been confirmed and the council said it would not publish more details about the attack in order to prevent assisting the attackers, but it has reported a data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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It stated: “Key essential services, including our coronavirus response, continue to operate, but some of our services may be unavailable or disrupted for some time.”

The council has not stated how long it expected the disruption to last for, nor did it respond to Sky News’ request for comment about the impact of being unable to make housing benefit payments.

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“With so many people facing housing insecurity due to the economic shock of the pandemic, housing payments are more critical than ever,” warned Greg Beales, the director of campaigns at housing charity Shelter.
“Local residents must not be put at risk as a result of this attack. It’s vital that housing payments are prioritised as services are restored,” Mr Beales added.
While the majority of private renters who receive assistance with their rents will receive it under Universal Credit, run by the Department for Work and Pensions, thousands are believed to be using the council-funded support scheme.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for Housing told Sky News: “The government is working closely with Hackney Borough Council to provide advice and support and ensure vital services are protected.
“Safeguarding frontline services remains the council’s priority,” the government spokesperson added.
If you would like to contact Alexander Martin, you can reach him securely using the private messaging app Signal on +44 (0)7970 376 704 or at [email protected]

Users of the contact-tracing app for England and Wales have reported receiving updates incorrectly telling them the risk level in their area had changed, after what Sky News understands was a mistake by the app’s developers.
The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed the error, but did not say how many people it had affected.

One expert told Sky News he believed that as many as four million people could have been sent incorrect updates by what he described as “a fat finger error”.
The problem was noticed by some of the app’s 16 million users on Friday evening, who complained on Twitter that the risk level for their area had been changed in ways that contradicted the official government guidance.

How you download the new contact-tracing app

Several users in Liverpool, the first city in the country to be put into the toughest Tier 3 category of restrictions for very high risk areas, said their apps had sent them an alert incorrectly telling them they were being downgraded from very high risk to high.

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App users in Sheffield, Nottingham and parts of the Midlands said they had been sent notifications incorrectly telling them their risk alert level had been downgraded to medium.

“We live in Walsall and it is classed as HIGH risk,” one wrote. “Why have we all received an alert saying our risk level has changed due to ‘rising risk levels’ yet it is now MEDIUM? This is very confusing.”

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An expert who was monitoring the app at the moment the error occurred said the problem was almost certainly caused when a blank file was accidentally sent to phones instead of an alert level update.
“I was monitoring for changes to the app to see whether they were addressing any of the issues that had been raised about confusing risk level messages,” said Jeremy Place, an information security specialist.
“I noticed that the file was empty from 18.21 for about an hour.”
A recent update to the app changed the postcode alert system to bring it into line with the government’s new Tier classifications.
Previously, it had three alert levels: low, medium and high. The update changed these to medium, high and very high.
Any phone receiving the empty file would have reverted to the old system, Mr Place said, generating an incorrect alert level and triggering a message which said: “The risk level in your area has changed.”
Several users reported the issue on social media by placing two phones with different alert levels next to each other.
The phone with the incorrect alert level displayed the old alert level format, confirming Mr Place’s analysis.
Mr Place, who operates his own QR check-in app, said that the postcode alert level was refreshed on phones every four hours, but he believed that not every app downloaded the new files at the same time.

Your questions answered on new contact-tracing app

Normal practice, he said, would be to spread the downloads out to reduce the strain on the system, so a quarter of apps were refreshed every hour.
As the empty file was available for around an hour, around a quarter of phones could have been affected by the error.
“We are advised that 16 million phones have downloaded the contact-tracing app. If those phones are still running the app, then it could affect four million people,” said Mr Place.
However, he added that only people who had updated their apps to incorporate the latest change would be affected.
Asked how bad the mistake was, Mr Place, an experienced systems architect, described it as “a fat finger error” with “no technical risk”.
But, he said: “What has been lost is the reputational aspect. You are losing the reputation which is all important for this app.”
In order to correct the error, the team behind the app sent another file at 19.31. As a result of this update, many more phones would be sent a message saying their alert level had changed, although the results of this second alert would be correct.

Image: Message received by NHS track and trace app if you need to self-isolate. Pic: Roland Manthorpe
The news is the latest challenge for the contact-tracing app, which has been criticised for sending out false alarms telling people they have been near someone who has tested positive.
These messages, which are automatically sent by the Google and Apple system on which the app has been built, have caused widespread anxiety among users.
The Department for Health and Social Care has said that any false alarms should be ignored and that instructions to isolate will be made clear within the app.
Asked about the incorrect risk level alerts, a DHSC spokesperson said: “We are aware of an issue which impacted updates to postcode alerts for some app users.
“This was identified and resolved within an hour and users’ phones will automatically update to show the correct local alert level for their area along with new guidance.”