Enda Carey, head of games and digital content at Northwest Vision and Media, is confident that the UK games industry will continue to grow despite the credit crunch.

“It’s my view that gaming is something that actually grows during recessionary times,” Carey told the Liverpool Daily Post. “People tend to stay in more rather than go out and do things. Games are one of the best ways to spend a lot of time.”

The idea that the sector can buck the trend by continuing to prosper in the face of an economic downturn was backed up earlier this year by the Office for National Statistics, which said in May that videogames were propping up falling UK retail sales.

Carey, who worked at Sony’s Liverpool studio for three years, also said that smaller developers will increasingly need to partner with other firms in order to compete with gaming’s major players, and views collaboration across different sectors as a key means of pushing the industry forward.

“The industry is changing. We’re starting to see a lot more collaboration across sectors. We want to get people used to collaboration and getting out of their comfort zones.”