Will Ed Vaizey be good for gaming?

When it was in opposition, the nearest thing the Conservative Party had to a video games tzar was Ed Vaizey. As “spokesperson for the games industry”, Vaizey had been keen on tax breaks for the games business and other “imaginative policies to support the industry as much as possible,” as he explained in an interview last year.

Now that he has been appointed as Culture Minister in the coalition government, though, is Vaizey going to be able to show such largesse? While the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has to make savings of £66m from its budget for 2010/11, Vaizey has won a number of fans in the games business – he has been described as “one of the few politicians to have shown a comprehensive understanding of the industry.” Not bad for someone who says he hasn’t played games since he was a teenager. But it remains to be seen if he proves as popular once the Government’s first budget is unveiled.