The current state of the games development in the UK has clearly declined over the last 3-5 years. While some may argue over the reasons, few would argue against this. Jobs, companies and people have slowly ebbed away from the UK.
The UK development scene has always been cyclical, going back to it’s origins in the early 80′s. Up until recently, the trend has been for development to grow and shrink as the hardware platforms emerged, developed and died back. The UK has always been (IMHO) a key player in the development of games – innovation, creativity and skills have all flourished over the last 20 years in this country. Many people rightly regarded the UK as being one of the top countries to turn to for the development of computer games.
This has recently changed, however. Changes and improvements to the hardware platforms have slowed down, meaning that this cycle of hardware is expected to be one of the longest yet. The global economic downturn, lack of government investment and other factors have all meant that for many publishers, the UK is no longer the ‘go to’ country to create games. Development has either moved to other countries such as Canada, or else contracted back to the publisher centre of operations, such as the States.
Long term, without some kind of active promotion and investments in the UK development community, permanent damage could be caused to our ability to create, train and employ staff.
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