We are always looking for a glimmer of hope with any budget... These days it's hard to find any. And that's certainly the case for the UK Games industry. I appreciate we are a niche sector, but the fact that we are a long established (in CG terms) and vibrant industry that allows us to lead the way just goes seemingly forgotten. The petition paperwork will have been 'filed' and once again we find that there is no support.
Budget day - Tax relief for gamers?
Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO, submitted a petition to Number 10 Downing Street yesterday, calling on the Government to introduce Games Tax Relief in the Budget on March 23rd. Richard also handed in a copy of TIGA’s publication Budget for Growth: Powering the Video Games Sector to Support the Economic Recovery to officials in Downing Street.
Games BAFTA's Announced Last Night
Last week I mentioned the 'red carpet day' for Games companies at the BAFTA's. Well, The awards ceremony was last night and the results are in!
Find Out About New Job Opportunities via Twitter
As most of you know, the UK Visual Effects' industry appears to be in a very healthy position at the moment. Many of the large post houses in Soho are in the middle of long term projects and most studios are commenting on the lack of available freelancers. As a result, the Recruitment team here at Escape has never been busier!
Red Carpet Day for Games at the BAFTA Awards
Is it any wonder that the games companies in the UK have a hard time? So many companies going out of business already this year (and it's only March) and seemingly no government support or tax breaks. Whilst computer games feature as heavily in many people's lives as film, I suspect that few know about the games BAFTA awards.
Well, it is red carpet day for the games industry on Wednesday 16th March 2011 and you can view the awards online starting from 8:30 PM. Will the awards ever make it to live TV? OK maybe not, we don't generally know these faces as they are not on the big screen. But give a thought for the awards, the games and the technology these guys produce - they need everyone's support... It's not like we don't play games right?
Has your favourite game been nominated? Check out the nominees here. For me in the family section it has to be Kinect Sports but good luck to everyone who has been nominated!
UK Games Industry in Need of Help
We were all delighted for our friends at Double Negative on Sunday, as they scooped an Oscar for their VFX work on Inception, and the whole country was feeling a touch of national pride as Brits dominated the ‘big’ awards. No matter what your thoughts on the future of British film, it was certainly a good day to be a part of the UK film industry.
Gut Wrenching Zombie Action from Axis Animation
I happened to click on this link in a newsletter from our friends at Axis Animation a couple of days ago. A nice animation to watch over your Corn Flakes!
Kinect's New Underground Fanbase Gets Busy
There has been a bit of an underground homebrew fanbase for Microsoft's new controller, Kinect.
New trailer for LA Noire
Even though there’s a few months until its launch, there’s a palpable buzz around Rockstar’s latest venture, LA Noire. A new trailer has just been released, which you can see on Develop, and it looks simply amazing.
Autodesk Announces Intent to Acquire Scaleform Corporation
"Another Autodesk purchase" I hear you cry as the news gets out that a cool $36 million CASH is to be spent on Scaleform.
Are cheap mobile games a risk to the industry?
According to Nintendo’s president, low priced mobile phone games are one of the biggest risks for the games industry as they are giving the impression that all games should be cheap. Last night I had a fantastic gaming session with my son, not on a Wii, PS3 or xbox but on my iPhone and it cost me 59 pence. The success of the Wii is something that Sony also encouraged with eye toy, casual gaming that is fun and accessible for all kinds of people not just hardcore gamers. It strikes me as a little naive to think that the app generation is the biggest threat to the games industry. Though, the cost of a ds game is huge and takes a child ages to save up their pocket money
The iPhone has opened the Market to small developers, provided a fantastic opportunity for people to break into games and because it is so easy to use, has opened up the world of videogames to a whole cross section of society. My children and I get just as much fun from an iPhone game as well as a ds for a fraction of the price. Epic has produced an amazing looking game for only a few pounds and created a version of their awesome engine specifically to embrace this exciting platform. The biggest threat to the games industry is the CEOs not listening to gamers - they should be encouraging development every where creating internships and fostering talent.
The makers of angry birds have opened an academy, not bad for a little throw away game. Come on Nintendo Sony and Microsoft, get your act together! Speaking of internships one of our games students Chris Chorley is doing a six month internship at veemee. You also only have to look at the success of Portal to see that Valves approach to internships pays huge rewards.
Livingstone-Hope Report Launch
On Tuesday I attended the launch of the Livingtone-Hope report which was undertaken to address the skills issues facing the UK's games and visual effects. Escape Studios staff have taken part in a number of the surveys which went into building the data for this report as well as speaking directly to Hasan Bakhshi and Juan Mateos-Garcia from NESTA, who did a large amount of the work of pulling the data for the draft report together. In essence the report lays out 20 recommendations across the talent pipeline from schools through FE and HE to the industry. All these parties as well as the government and other skills and training bodies such as Skillset are called on to do their bit. All of this whilst being realistic about the funding and resources available, the recommendations had to be about the focus of existing funds not calls for large sums of new money.
A Career in Games: Smart Move
According to the UKIE, “UK development leads the charge on Motion Controlled Gaming and in the All Format chart”. Figures released earlier in the week show that games made by UK developers account for 42% of all units sold for Microsoft’s Kinect since its launch. Those are pretty impressive results and something that we should be celebrating. Pity the government doesn’t value the industry enough to maintain the tax breaks for the games industry – you can read more about this in a recent post by Lee Danskin.
Games Art Production Students Show off their Work
Here's the first look at some of the work from the Game Art Production course which finished in December.
Games Industry Tax Breaks - or The Lack of Them....
So when Activision, the distributor of Call of Duty Black Ops - a game that hit the $1 billion mark in sales in roughly the same amount of time as Avatar - mentions that it might take its development out of the UK you would hope that someone might sit up and take notice.
Stereoscopic 3D and Small Children
Nintendo, Sony, Toshiba have all issued warnings on the development of eyesight in younger children when watching stereoscopic 3D images. Here is a link to a BBC story about the recent Nintendo announcement. Their announcement basically said: "There is a possibility that 3-D images which send different images to the left and right eye could affect the development of vision in small children".
Designing & Developing an iPad App
I have to admit I’m fond of iPad apps and games, and have always wondered how developers go about creating them. So, when I got a chance to get the inside scoop from Qurios, an iPad games developer, I jumped at it.
Xbox Kinect Versus Playstation Move
Thank you technology customers!
Last night we had some of the finest brains and talent in Soho out for our Technology Christmas drinks.
We just want to really thank all those who came along and hope you enjoyed the evening.. We certainly did and it was great to see so many new and familiar faces!
Top 5 Reasons to Use CityEngine
It's not often I see new technology come along with the potential to really make a difference in a pipeline. CityEngine is one such product that is gaining momentum in the industry and worthy of a closer look.