Bizarre Creations Throws Support Behind Government Petition
UK industry starts to wake up?
18 Mar 2008
Back on March 13th we ran a story regarding Dan Spence's online petition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown regarding support for the UK video game industry. This is the industry that the UK government has cast as 'small business'.
The petition (which you can sign here) currently stands at 1,645 signatures.
Of those, you will find Ben Ward - Ben's the Community & Web Lead at Bizarre Creations (The Club, Project Gotham Racing 4 to name but two).
Bizarre has also released a statement regarding its support for the petition. SPOnG has tried to get comment from several developers and publishers on this subject, and has been met with either no comment or with platitudes. Frankly, therefore, for a game developer of note to enter the political arena in the world of buttoned-down, 'shareholder value' corporate gaming is worthy of comment. Here's some of what Bizarre has to say:
"...the UK has always been, and still is, a real hotbed of talent, producing some of the world's best selling games across many genres and formats. But it's getting harder and harder to be a developer or publisher in the UK, as increasing costs and global competition mean that everyone's under great financial pressure.
"As the years have gone by, many studios have struggled and had to close, and different gaming studios have had to find their own ways to deal with this pressure. It was a big part of the reason that Bizarre chose to become part of the Activision family - in order to guarantee security to our employees, and security to our future games in this difficult climate. But even as part of a large publisher, without active Government support of our industry, developing or publishing games in the UK is still stressful with current economic conditions.
"The problem has been compounded recently by some foreign government tax breaks and financial incentives given to studios and/or publishers who set up or operate in their countries. Many publishers have already taken advantage of financial incentives and moved, bought or set up development studios overseas, and UK talent (both experienced, and new graduates) is being tempted away."
"As the years have gone by, many studios have struggled and had to close, and different gaming studios have had to find their own ways to deal with this pressure. It was a big part of the reason that Bizarre chose to become part of the Activision family - in order to guarantee security to our employees, and security to our future games in this difficult climate. But even as part of a large publisher, without active Government support of our industry, developing or publishing games in the UK is still stressful with current economic conditions.
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"The problem has been compounded recently by some foreign government tax breaks and financial incentives given to studios and/or publishers who set up or operate in their countries. Many publishers have already taken advantage of financial incentives and moved, bought or set up development studios overseas, and UK talent (both experienced, and new graduates) is being tempted away."
You can read the rest of the statement here.
Okay, so there is some vested interest in Bizarre's statement - but at least it's prepared to make a statement rather than ignoring the issue.
We also managed to catch up with Dan Spence, the person who originated the petition. We wanted to discover what motivated him - what his vested interest is. Here's what Dan told us:
"I'm not onto anything at a professional level yet. I'm just interested in the mod scene at the moment, I play a lot of Team Fortress 2 and the scene there is pretty friendly.
"I'm really not sure what gamers themselves can do, we really are the last part of this bottom heavy food chain. I'm reluctant to use the word hardcore because I think it has a bad connotation but really the people who care about the industry are a very small part of the gaming audience. We don't have the power to vote with our wallets."
"I'm really not sure what gamers themselves can do, we really are the last part of this bottom heavy food chain. I'm reluctant to use the word hardcore because I think it has a bad connotation but really the people who care about the industry are a very small part of the gaming audience. We don't have the power to vote with our wallets."
So, a gamer who just wants to see an healthy industry. In case you missed that petition link here it is again. Messages of support to Dan can be sent via us or straight on to the SPOnG Forum.
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13 comments posted.
First comment
Posted by SuperSaiyan4
And this is coming from a company that hasn't made a decent award winning game since PGR2...Am sorry but imo BC suck ass.
Latest comment
Posted by PreciousRoi
A wise man once said...
"Both"
"Both"
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