We spoke to Ruffian’s Gaz Liddon recently and he suggested that buyouts and closures are part of a cyclical nature for publishers. Publishers buy up developers that they’re interested in, because of the alluring and lucrative franchises that those developers have made, and then they eventually shake them off because the IP has found its saturation point. He said though, that the current economic climate is essentially a catalyst for these imminent closures; a reason to close up now rather than in one or two games’ time.
That’s absolutely true. This industry has always been cyclical, it’s more-or-less triggered by various factors such as the console cycle and also the lifespan of IP that the publishers have inherited. Looking at the industry internationally, what we see is a closed development team forming the bones of a new company with new IP, which are eventually bought up. And so on.

That is just natural and we should not do anything to stop or try to interfere with that. The issue though, is where the next batch of acquisitions happen, if that workforce will stay in the UK.


What exactly were you hoping to find from the interim Digital Britain report?
Depressingly, I have fairly low expectations of the Labour Government.

I think, to be honest, the Digital Britain report looks to me like a laughable white-wash. It dodges the issues, it really doesn’t address them at all. On the one hand, you’ve got Gordon Brown talking about how the creative industries are really important, while at the same time not mentioning the videogames industry as part of that.

With the Digital Britain report, if you look at the index you’d swear that the games industry didn’t exist. And it’s only buried in the text as one or two references to it: when the size of the industry is measured – though that’s only measured in aggregate – and also with one sentence where the report says ‘the games industry is facing difficulties.’
And those mere two references are so buried in the report, they really might as well have not bothered mentioning it.


I remember when the report had just been released and I was writing up a story on it. I actually had to press ctrl+f and type in ‘game’ to actually find something relevant.
And isn’t that telling. The thing about that is it means the government were aware of it, but they had chosen to bury it.

It goes back directly to something that I asked directly of Margaret Hodge. More than a year ago, one of the things she suggested was that the government was going to challenge the benefits the games industry gets in Canada to the World Trade Organization. Now, I think it was unanimous that the plan was doomed to fail, but it wasn’t set up to actually challenge Canada. It was a delaying tactic, where the government didn’t have to do anything while at the same time be seen to do something.

So I think that’s what really upsets me. The games industry is one that’s blossoming worldwide, and Britons should be having a share – a rightful share – of that pie. We’re fortunate at Frontier, we’ve been successful nevertheless, but unfortunately we are seeing most recruitment in the industry happening outside the UK, while many companies based here are finding things a struggle.


When we recently spoke to the Shadow Cabinet Minister for Culture, he told us that the Conservatives would establish a government-sponsored body to support the industry. Is this pure party-politics, or actually, is this kind of pressure quite useful regardless of intent?
I think any pressure on this subject is useful. I think one of the problems is that it really shouldn’t become a party-political issue. Sadly, if you look at many things that get addressed in the UK usually it’s because they have become a party-political issue, where one party wants to knock out the other.

I think that’s depressing. This issue should be looked at because it’s good for the country. However, hats off to Ed Vaizey for what he’s been saying.

The real issue with what the government would have to do is actually relatively little but just take a proper sincere look at our industry. We’ve been talking to the government for quite some time, and the strong message we’ve got back is that they don’t really care.

I was actually told on a public forum by Margaret Hodge that, if I was really so concerned with the situation in Canada, I should go there. That is how the government regards the issue.