TIGA: 41% of laid off UK developers move overseas

TIGA has issued a report which claims 41% of UK developers laid off between 2009 and 2011 have relocated to overseas jobs.

The report further states that the country's games development workforce has fallen 10%, and used Bizzare Creations as an example of workers leaving the UK to find jobs outside of the country. According to the report, one third of the staff who left the studio after its closure in 2010 went overseas to find new work, mainly the US and Canada.

Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA, said those in the industry are flocking to countries where better tax incentives are in place, and the future looks grim for the UK if similar schemes aren't put in place.

“The UK video games development and digital publishing sector provides high levels of graduate employment, has a high propensity to export, is at the cutting edge of R&D, and has a world class reputation for IP generation," he said. “Our competitors in Canada and elsewhere are able to recruit highly skilled developers from the UK largely because they benefit from tax breaks, which effectively reduce the cost of games development.

“Tax breaks both stimulate job creation in the games sector and provide games businesses with significant financial resources with which they can deploy to recruit staff. The video games industry is exactly the kind of sector that the Government should be supporting to help rebalance the UK economy.”

TIGA's figured were derived from surveying 75% of the UK’s games industry, and the full findings will be published in a forthcoming report.

Thanks, Develop.