UK Game Developer Workforce Diminishes
Industry experiences shrinks in current climate
Over there, that's Canada. We're safe!
Recent independent data has revealed that the game industry's workforce in the UK has experienced a 9% decline in number since 2008.
The data, collected by the research group Games Investor Consulting, covers the hundreds of job losses in the industry together with the migration of formerly UK-based British developers taking their skills to studios abroad.
Attributed to the contraction of the industry are factors such as the lack of state aid in tax breaks such as those experienced by the Canadian and French games industries, discouraging future investment together with developers such as Realtime Worlds going under and having knock-on effects in their local development communities.
The director of the analyst group, Rick Gibson, explained of the findings that are due to be published soon by games industry monitoring association TIGA that regarding Realtime Worlds closing its doors that:
“After the RTW recruitment auction, a minority may leave gaming, but in a global industry with a highly mobile workforce, many will use this as the opportunity to work for overseas games companies."
“Data is hard to gather, but TIGA’s [previous] 2009 survey found that half of studios’ lost jobs went overseas, 72 per cent of them to Canada.”
Certain areas of the Canadian games industry experiencing tax breaks of up to 35%-40% stand as lucrative reasons as to why developers are flocking to foreign shores for continued work and brighter prospects.
The CEO of Activision, Bobby Kotick, added his thoughts on why his company was reluctant to further invest in development in the UK. He said of the current conditions that:
“It is ridiculously expensive to live in the UK, especially in London.”
“What dictates our expansion plans would be whether we can compensate our employees fairly and whether they can achieve the quality of life that they want."
Tough times ahead for the UK games industry it seems. Our very own Editor-in-chief, Tim, can testify to the trials and tribulations of the UK development scene.
Do you think the UK games industry is on a downwards spiral? Or does the data from this recent survey suggest that things are worse than they actually are? Any thoughts, feel free to post them down below.
Source: Develop
The data, collected by the research group Games Investor Consulting, covers the hundreds of job losses in the industry together with the migration of formerly UK-based British developers taking their skills to studios abroad.
Attributed to the contraction of the industry are factors such as the lack of state aid in tax breaks such as those experienced by the Canadian and French games industries, discouraging future investment together with developers such as Realtime Worlds going under and having knock-on effects in their local development communities.
The director of the analyst group, Rick Gibson, explained of the findings that are due to be published soon by games industry monitoring association TIGA that regarding Realtime Worlds closing its doors that:
“After the RTW recruitment auction, a minority may leave gaming, but in a global industry with a highly mobile workforce, many will use this as the opportunity to work for overseas games companies."
“Data is hard to gather, but TIGA’s [previous] 2009 survey found that half of studios’ lost jobs went overseas, 72 per cent of them to Canada.”
Certain areas of the Canadian games industry experiencing tax breaks of up to 35%-40% stand as lucrative reasons as to why developers are flocking to foreign shores for continued work and brighter prospects.
The CEO of Activision, Bobby Kotick, added his thoughts on why his company was reluctant to further invest in development in the UK. He said of the current conditions that:
“It is ridiculously expensive to live in the UK, especially in London.”
“What dictates our expansion plans would be whether we can compensate our employees fairly and whether they can achieve the quality of life that they want."
Tough times ahead for the UK games industry it seems. Our very own Editor-in-chief, Tim, can testify to the trials and tribulations of the UK development scene.
Do you think the UK games industry is on a downwards spiral? Or does the data from this recent survey suggest that things are worse than they actually are? Any thoughts, feel free to post them down below.
Source: Develop
Comments
irritant 4 Nov 2010 16:40
1/1
Depends on what's happening to the global developer community, really. If all countries are suffering similar contraction, then it's got little to do with tax breaks or cost of living in the UK.