Sunday, July 18, 2010

"Canada 'a major threat' to UK video games industry" Says TIGA

TIGA's Chief Executive Richard Wilson has revealed fears over Canada being "a major threat" to the UK video games industry, saying that "we're competing on a very uneven playing field" thanks to the recent scrap of the proposed government tax breaks.

Speaking on BBC One's Politics Show this morning, Wilson said that "economically (the video games industry) is very important.

"It contributes a billion pounds to UK GDP, it generates £415m in tax receipts for the treasury, it employs 30,000 people, many of them in very highly skilled jobs, and it's very export-focussed; just the kind of sector the UK economy needs in the future."

But Wilson later said that the UK was "competing on a very uneven playing field," and that "the Canadians are a major threat to our industry."

"The Canadians are really serious about this," added Prem Gyani of Quickstart Global. "They have identified the fact that the games industry is part of their country's strategy. They're doing everything right."

So what does the UK need to do to retain its talent? Well, the Executive Director of the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, Danielle Parr, thinks that Canada has been successful due to making the industry "a priority", adding that it has no qualms in taking our "investment".

"I think a lot of people are looking at Canada and saying 'how are they doing this, they're taking all our jobs, how are they attracting our investment and we're not able to keep them here?'," said Parr.

"But as they say, all's fair in love and war.

"We're just simply trying to promote the video game industry in general, promote what Canada has to offer, and we'll take the best and the brightest; we'll take your investment. As a nation we've made it a priority and invested a lot in this industry, and we're hoping that will pay off with our continued growth and continued dominance in the video games space."

The Conservative's Culture Minister Ed Vaizey, however, thinks that the UK is still on "a relatively level playing field" with the Canadians, thanks to the "ecology" we have over here.

"The Canadian government has made a decision to get behind the video games industry and to create a video games industry virtually out of nothing. But I think that it's still a relatively level playing field because while the Canadians are putting in a lot of direct financial support, it's very hard to create the kind of ecology that we have in this country.

"Video games have been around for fifty years and we've been at the forefront of video games development in this country, and that's very hard to replicate."

The Canadians handed out fake Canadian passports at last week's Develop in Brighton in an attempt to aggressively promote awareness of the advantages of working in the country.

Canada currently houses some of the industry's biggest development houses, including Ubisoft Montreal and EA Sports, while the UK hosts top talent from Lionhead Studios, Rare, Media Molecule, Evolution Studios, Black Rock Studios, Criterion and many, many more.

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