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Despite spearheaded efforts by local and regional development studios in Europe to create a more competitive avenue for the European games industry, it appears that they are still severely hindered by their own local government. For the UK, Free Radical Design's David Doak sees that the government is more focused on looking down on the industry instead of encouraging growth.
"The UK Government needs to do something more useful than just criticising violent content in videogames," Doak said to Games Industry in an interview. Free Radical Design, makers of the highly-anticipated Haze for the next-gen consoles and PC, is one of the region's top and most vocal of developers. Doak added:
Here's an industry that 20 years ago we led the world in - through bedroom rock-and-roll development on the early home computers - and now there's a very real chance that what is now a real profession is going to be driven out of the UK because they don't make any concessions to it.
He criticized the British government for establishing fervor for the British movie industry, for example, and for financially supporting it, and yet wouldn't do the same for the game industry. "They'll stand around watching videogame developers losing staff," Doak commented.
The biggest of game development contracts usually go to other countries such as France and the immensely supportive Canada, which happens to currently drive its economy with the welfare of the game industry in mind. He even mentions that developing regions which are bearing potential game development resources, such as Shanghai, are now even being looked at as opposed to established studios in the UK.
"They drive up the cost of our business, and that makes us less appealing to other people, and even on a wider level, individual people are getting headhunted and pulled away - lots of people go to Canada, because that's a nice place," said Doak.
France-based publisher Ubisoft also has the biggest of its studios in Canada, and is the primary reason why Free Radical chose to collaborate with the European publishing giant for a title like Haze (for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC).
"If we're going to build something significant, it needs to be something that matters as much to them as it matters to us," Doak commented.
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