Government urged to play fair with UK video games industry.

ShadowFox

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/21/games-wii

An article i just ran across with some views id like to here and not from a news write :P

"The problem is that it is in relative decline." - in the UK this is, anyone have input from UK based companies about this?

"tax breaks to games developers" - how much has this hurt people working in the UK, as you dont get tax breaks?

"the problem with universities is that they're paid on a bums-on-seats basis", which led to a "dumbing down" - is this the general view as to why some polycounters recomended to take art instead of a game dev course?

Richard Kain

As far as the universities go, I think the article is looking at the issue from a different angle. A lot of polycounters are very focused on art. And in terms of art, the technical aspects are not that hard to learn, and getting easier to learn all the time. (as more user-friendly software is developed) If ALL you want to do in games is make art for them, a college degree will never be as important as your portfolio.

In this article, they are focusing more on coders. (computer science degrees) Most college "Game" curriculum these days do not result in science degrees. A BA in game design is no better, and possibly worse, than a BA in studio art or graphic design. In England, they aren't hurting for BAs, they're hurting for BSs. They want more people with science degrees, most likely for low-level coding. How many major game engines have come out of England in the past decade?

The relative decline of the game industry in the UK has been a hot topic in the past few years. It's true that Great Britain took an early lead in game development and publishing. Until recently, they were a major power in this industry. Now one of the largest publishers in England (Eidos) just got purchased by Square Enix. A Japanese company just bought a large British game publisher, just to strengthen their presence in Europe. That's how bad its gotten.

As to tax breaks, here's the low-down. In the U.S., the federal government generally stays hands-off when it comes to industry tax breaks. That sort of function is usually handled at the state government level. However, a lot of U.S. states have gotten very serious about tax breaks for game companies. And up in Canada, a lot of Canadian provinces are getting into the game too. British Colombia has been leading that charge for some time. Their presence is now a powerful force in the game industry. In the U.S., Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia have all been making pushes to attract more technical companies, especially game developers. And all three of those states have a much lower cost of living than California, Seattle, or the North-East. And I believe France has been getting into the game as well. England is in bad need of more technically capable development talent, and all of it is getting poached by other countries and territories that are offering more money with a lower cost of living.

Flynny

Couldnt of summed it better, its a real shame that we have organisations throwing stuff at the goverment and there taking no note.

I think there just waiting till things get quieter so they can call it job done, which ofc it will do once most of the studios have gone under/moved overseas ;(

Ruz

Do you really expect our government to be actually competent at anything LOL

We are taxed to death in this country so I can't see Brown parting with his own shite let alone do anything to help the games business.

danshewan

I guess we'll see how the games industry fares after the election in June, but the assumption that this will result in any positive government action from Brown or Cameron is pretty naive.

Ruz

man, can you imagine gordon brown playing gears of war:)

ShadowFox

Yeah Gordon or cameron I think i will be moving if the fate of UK games industry stays in their hands hahah!

danshewan

Well, we're moving back to the States before the election anyway, but it's pretty sad the way things are being handled.

There are also two other areas where the games industry wants government to act. First, there are problems with the higher education system. Second, the UK is falling behind in terms of broadband provision, and online gaming is today's growth area.

No shit. I can't even imagine how long it would take to seriously address the issues with the education system, or why Britain's network infrastructure is so woefully inadequate. I think it's great that the industry is at the very least voicing its concerns in a way that the government can understand, but any meaningful action on this is going to take a very long time.

thomasp

sorry, can't quite see the significance of the games industry in the big picture - we do not create an awful lot of jobs for locals or as a whole generate significant tax revenue from what i can see. studios do not need to be rooted very deeply where they are set up, don't typically invest in the local people and are often short-lived. i wonder how even a big studio (by european standards) would compare against the kind of asset to a community that your average mid sized engineering company represents.

i doubt that any tax break could lure one of the big players to set up shop in the kingdom for realz. one slight nudge on the ever so fragile pound exchange rate and that advantage is probably gone. and the studios here seem to be starving for talent as it is. but what do i know.

not that i wouldn't welcome more opportunities in europe, don't get me wrong. just can't quite imagine deep-in-shit-britain could really afford to care for such a niche industry at this point.

ralusek

just be like "no taxation without representation" and put teabags in the ocean, then burn witches

Mark Dygert

If you're politicians are anything like ours they hate games and would rather spend their time roasting marshmallows over giant burning piles of games. In fact I'm sure thats what they do, since they all exhibit signs of slowed mental capacity thanks to the fumes...

You stand a better chance of tying "the industry" to film rather than "games" but not by much...

ShadowFox

haha vig youve actually hit a point there :P they do, alot of people in the UK will use a game in a court case or to blame something! someone was murdered, attacked or beaten by a teenager!! they search his room, they find GRAND THEFT AUTO!!! holy lord!

danshewan

Vig wrote: »

If you're politicians are anything like ours they hate games and would rather spend their time roasting marshmallows over giant burning piles of games.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

In other news media reporting the forum, it seemed like much more of a big deal was made of Keith Vaz's absence than of the actual issue itself, given that he's prone to ridiculous outbursts about how games are evil. He's probably on equal footing in terms of hysteria as Australia's Atkinson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Vaz#Video_game_violence