If you could try and look at the scenario from another point of view. Can you understand why Brown’s cabinet is choosing not to push for tax breaks in the industry right now?
To be fair, yes, they’ve got big problems on their plate at the moment.

Having said that, I think the issue is that they’re under a lot of pressure to cut government spending, but the problem is that not supporting the industry shows a very narrow way of looking at the problem.

If you look at what such subsidiaries have cost Canada, the most recent figures that I’ve seen show that it’s cost them the equivalent of half a billion pounds, yet, one and a half billion has come in as a result. So there’s a net-upside to it.

This is all about what difference these subsidiaries would make, and our industry is forecast to shrink. The sad thing is that when you look at the top ten in the charts, you may see one, maybe two games that are developed in the UK. I remember not that long ago that most of them would be UK-based.


If we remove economics from the equation for a moment, what makes Britain an attractive place for developers and publishers?
I think there’s a huge loyalty amongst UK developers – and I include myself in that – for wanting to stay in the UK despite everything else. And I think that is a very powerful attraction; there is still a valuable community here. The problem is, more and more of that community are essentially being forced to move away.


What does the government’s failure to act say about the GamesUP initiative? What needs to be addressed with the lobbying group?
Well the GamesUp initiative I think was successful in that it has raised the profile of the industry. But certainly, for me personally, it highlighted the fact that our government is really just responding to whoever shouts the loudest.
Perhaps we’re not shouting loudly enough, but that’s a terrible mistake for the government to be in, if they’re not doing it for the good of the country, but doing it to be seen to be doing things.


Do you think that there’s anything inherently wrong with Canada’s generous subsidy policies?
Well, an argument often put forward is of why does a successful industry such as Canada need to be subsidised. I think, personally, subsidies are a terrible thing, because it unstabilises industries relative to each other, but the point is, Canada has spotted that this is a growing industry, one that’s very valuable, and when its subsidies go away it will have built a very powerful hub.

The point is, it doesn’t actually matter whether subsidiaries are a bad thing or not; the fact is that they are countering progress in the UK where employment is much more expensive.


Finally, we’d like to hear your thoughts on the term ‘recession-proof’ that’s still being thrown around.
Nothing is recession-proof. It’s like calling a ship unsinkable. You could take anything, like the Pizza industry, and ask if it is recession-proof. Of course it isn’t. Nothing is.


So, recession-proof is, essentially, an oxymoron.
Absolutely.