I saw Richard Wilson's piece about "how the UK can beat the recession" and I think it misses the main point.

The software side of the worldwide games industry (at least) is doing very well during the current troubles. Game sales are indeed up 23% year on year in the UK, and the current low pound helps UK developers immensely. Nevertheless, other places like Canada remain very attractive, and it is doubtless also no coincidence that Eidos is growing rapidly over there, at the same time as closing their Manchester office.

There is an issue with availability of debt, for those companies that need it. This mostly applies to startups, where the Small Firms Loans Guarantee Scheme has all but dried up, but this should only affect a few games developers.

My main point is negativity breeds negativity. Yes, we will see some mergers, some publisher-owned development closing, and, frankly, when has this not been the case? For companies looking to expand, recruitment is now the best it has ever been. Sadly, much of the expansion of our industry is likely to be outside the UK - indeed this is what the government appears to want - but let's not talk ourselves into shrinkage in this UK business too.

David Braben is the founder of UK developer Frontier.