We’re often asked to see the parallels between the games industry and the film industry, but for those of us who work in Britain we may not want the parallels to go too far or the future of the British games industry may be bleak.
One of the best things about Twitter is the informative links you find posted by the people you follow (if you follow the right ones) and so it was with interest I read this piece, which was quite an eye-opener. Then, within an hour of reading that, I read this piece, which just seemed to emphasise the point the first one was making. I didn’t realise that the situation with British films was so hopeless.
You can already see something similar with television. With more and more programmes being imported from the US, if the current government gets its way and demolishes the BBC there will be no British TV industry in years to come.
Will games go the same way?
It’s difficult to know because games are such a different medium, but we’ve already seen the disappearance of British publishers by being bought out by larger, overseas publishers or simply going out of business. However, when you see countries like Canada offering incentives for development companies, it’s not difficult to be concerned that our lack of strong direction in such cultural matters from a series of governments over the years does not paint a picture of a promising future.
Am I wrong to feel a little pessimistic?
Not really, but nobody said that can’t change. Radically even and in ways we never thought possible. For now though, things do look grim worldwide.