From the “no-brainer headline” department: A recent survey released by UK research body TIGA has found that 85% of UK-based developers would like tax breaks for game development. The other 15% apparently didn’t understand the question.
While the only real interesting aspect about the tax break part of the survey is that it wasn’t 100% of developers surveyed who would like tax breaks, there’s plenty of other meat in the report. Developers who live in the land of the Union Jack have been struggling lately: Despite being the third-largest games industry in the world based on revenue in 2006, the UK slipped to fourth in 2007, and “is expected to fall to fifth in 2009.”
One of the primary difficulties is actually a question of manpower: 63% of the managing directors and CEOs surveyed had faced skill shortages in 2008, and the hardest-to-fill shoes seemed to be … programmers, actually, with 74% of those surveyed agreeing that coder vacancies were the most difficult to fill. I guess offering employee benefits consisting solely of Mountain Dew and Cheetos doesn’t attract ’em like it used to.
In addition to lack of manpower, the survey indicated UK-based developers were frustrated over the lack of support they were getting in business initiatives from the goverment: “If we want the UK games industry to remain in the premiership the Government must act,” claimed TIGA CEO Richard Wilson.
So to all our UK-based readers out there – quick, learn to code! It might be a crappy economy, but hey, you’re needed!
