"Ian Livingstone (and others) comment on Brexit" Topic

Ian Livingstone, the founder of Games Workshop and one of the leading lights of Britain's games industry, said in an interview that the games industry "ticks all the right boxes for the knowledge economy – high skills, high tech, high growth, IP-creating, regional, digital, 80% export in a global market worth $120 USDbn per annum".

So no longer in miniatures but still soldering on (ahem) in related genres.

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Ah, but we'll be able to have blue passport covers.

Which we could perfectly legally have had anyway.

So….

Oh, so British companies won't be able to recruit skills from overseas. Does this mean that they may have to start spending money on training young British people and developing talent again like companies used to. How terrible.

Or you move your multi-billion pound computer games design house to another country 'cos you don't want to lose out on the next Fast & Furious or Grand Theft Auto because you're trying to recruit and train up replacement staff.

The big players in the game industry won't be willing to wait 6 months or a year extra for their next big product whilst the UK starts a computer game designer apprentice scheme.

The computer gaming industry can die; it's just about making money from teens who should be getting off their backsides and doing something useful in life.

Like sitting down and painting toy soldiers!

If British kids were interested in high skill, high tech jobs, they would have flocked to such an education, training programs or not. They didn't.

Ooh, politics, how edgy.

Desto. Supply and demand. If there is no demand, then why try to supply it. British universities offer endless game design courses aimed at precisely this market, but jobs are few and far between because with current EU rules it is easier and much cheaper to pick up an Eastern European team member who makes his money in the UK and then takes it back to Poland to build his dream house and retire early.

UK career progression and salary inflation is incredibly low, as is the level of training provided by British companies, for precisely this reason. If we want to see UK companies paying better salaries and investing more in training, then limiting their access to cheaper Eastern European labour is the way to do it.

Freedom of movement in the EU has been very good for big companies, but utterly disastrous for people on the lower rungs of society where the chances of getting a job with training and career progression is almost zero.

Northern Monkey wrote:

Desto. Supply and demand. If there is no demand, then why try to supply it. British universities offer endless game design courses aimed at precisely this market, but jobs are few and far between because with current EU rules it is easier and much cheaper to pick up an Eastern European team member who makes his money in the UK and then takes it back to Poland to build his dream house and retire early.

UK career progression and salary inflation is incredibly low, as is the level of training provided by British companies, for precisely this reason. If we want to see UK companies paying better salaries and investing more in training, then limiting their access to cheaper Eastern European labour is the way to do it.

You really have no understanding of the British games industry (for full disclosure, me and my company are a signatory on the Games4EU petition…).

There is no lack of talent at junior grades in the UK because there are plenty of graduates out there, way too many in fact compared to the number of roles generally available (so in fact we have been over successful in training new talent, to the extent that we can be quite fussy about who we recruit, and this does have retarding effect on junior/graduate salaries). The UK industry is NOT swamped with Eastern Europeans in those grades and never has been.

If you want cheap Eastern European labour, you DON'T employ them in the UK, you outsource from companies in Eastern Europe.

It's the mid range and senior/lead roles that we have shortages in, because of the brain drain (particularly in coding roles) to North America (and yes, this happens with non-UK Europeans as well, but to a lesser extent because of the preferential visa/residency situation for UK citizens in the US and Canada). Good staff with an understanding/experience of the industry you take from where ever you can get them.

The UK games industry is as successful as it has been because the costs of development here are considerably cheaper than the US and the greatest proportion of the publishers are US based.

However, innovation funding from the EU has supported the growth of many UK studios, in particular Regional Selective Assistance grants (these are available to other sectors, not just the games industry) which help fund job creation through matched funding, but there are many others. The current UK government hasn't even begun to think about or even committing to providing replacements for these.

McWong73

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AAA game development is the hell hole of computer development work. I wouldn't go near it, insane hours for no extra pay.

Northern Monkey is definitely living up to his moniker. Brexit will be a disaster for so many and I can't see the UK recovering from it in my lifetime. History shows what isolationism and nationalism reaps, and its never been good.

PaddySinclair
Many thanks for sharing your experience.
Always interesting to hear from someone who knows what they are talking about…

Huscarle. Isolationism? Really? I am keen to see Britain trade with the whole world, not just the restrictive European zone which limits our ability to trade elsewhere. The internet gives us a clear indication of how the wargaming world is one big global market, why not follow that example and take a bigger view of the future. Clearly this is a matter of perspective. When I see international opportunities, you see insular nationalism.

When I see international opportunities, you see insular nationalism.

A couple of small deals in the Pacific (!) which is what people seem to be excited about will in no way compensate for the disaster of losing the free movement of goods required by companies using lean manufacturing techniques and having to pay import tax on all goods from the EU.

The average international trade deal takes over 4 years to arrange – what do we do in the meantime? And don't say trade under WTO rules because we aren't a WTO member !