UK games industry in danger of 'melting into iPhone devs' - Codemasters

The UK games industry is in danger of being reduced to four-man iPhone development studios.

That's according to Bodycount game director Andy Wilson, who blames a tough economic climate and the way in which hopes for tax breaks were "torpedoed".

The Codemasters Guildford dev told Gamerzines it's "painfully obvious" why so many UK studios are closing "when you look at the level of support in North America".

"The UK is primarily tough, in my opinion, because the bright, shining hope of tax breaks for the games industry got torpedoed," he said.

"It's a tough economy for sure, but we need to start supporting the industry properly or the whole thing is going to melt into iPhone developers - and there's only so many four-man teams who are going to find success.

"When you look at the level of support in North America it becomes painfully obvious why so many developers here are closing their doors, including my former home Black Rock. I'm still sitting in disbelief at that one."

He added: "Codemasters already has a studio in Malaysia for production of art assets, but I would think it unlikely we'll move full scale development overseas any time soon. We're still flying the flag as the last British publisher, after all."

Head of the new UK Codemasters studio, Ian Johnson, touched on the same subject last week when he said that UK developers need to work together to counter foreign tax incentives with domestic efficiency.

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