Mayor of London Boris Johnson has launched an initiative to help promote games and games development in the UK capital that will initially be funded to the tune of £1.2 million.

What's more, he presented an online press conference to announce the scheme, after being rendered as Minecraft figure.

Games London is a joint venture between the Mayor's London Enterprise Panel, Film London and Ukie - the country's games industry trade body.

It will partly capitalise on the Video Games Tax Relief that was introduced two years ago. The aim is attract investment to the UK and build London as a hub for global games development.

Under the Games London unbrella, there will be several activities and events that will take place in the capital, including London Games Week and a new international business-to-business networking event.

London Games Festival will run from 1 to 10 April and will incorporate different events across the city. The BAFTA Games Awards will be part of the line-up, as will EGX Rezzed - the consumer videogames convention.

In other related news, Microsoft has also announced that it is acquiring MinecraftEdu and expanding the concept to create a new and expanded version of Minecraft for classrooms called Minecraft Education Edition.

Microsoft bought Minecraft developer Mojang more than a year ago.