As you all will probably have heard by now, Britain have decided they no longer want to be a part of the European Union. This decision will have a huge impact on jobs, immigration, our health care system, as well as many other important aspects of the country.
So, what does this have to do with the games industry? The European Union helped several independent developers by providing them with funding, funding that will no longer be provided to developers in Britain. An example of a recently released game co-funded by the European Union is SteamWorld Heist, a game that is currently sitting at 86 on Metacritic (for the 3DS version).
TIGA, the network for video games developers and digital publishers and the trade association representing the video games industry, have issued a statement regarding the Brexit vote. TIGA directed their statement towards the UK Government and Parliament, suggesting there are four key issues facing the video games industry following the EU referendum:
• Access to finance
• A favourable tax environment:
• Access to talent
• Intellectual Property
Click here to read TIGA’s entire message where they expand on these four issues.
Here’s what TIGA’s CEO, Dr Richard Wilson had to say about the UK video games industry:
“The UK video games industry is a high technology sector that provides high skilled employment for over 30,000 people, including approximately 11,000 development staff and which contributes £1.1 billion to UK GDP. It is also export oriented, with at least 95 per cent of studios exporting. Following the referendum in favour of ‘Brexit’, it will be more vital than ever to strengthen (and avoid harming) those sectors where the UK has a comparative competitive advantage: for example, aerospace, defence, high-value manufacturing and engineering, high technology industries, higher education, low carbon technology and the creative industries, including the video games sector.”
“For the video games industry, it is particularly important that policy makers ensure games companies have access to sufficient finance, benefit from Video Games Tax Relief and R&D Tax Relief, have clear and stable IP rights and can access highly skilled people from outside of the UK. Any new points based migration system must not be onerous or complicated, otherwise the industry’s growth could be held back.”
Let us know in the comment section below what you think about Brexit.
