Contractor UK – British computer games programmers are increasingly being head-hunted by US and Canadian companies whose pockets may be deeper, risking a “brain drain” of UK IT talent. Issuing this warning, Procorre said that more than half of the online gaming job adverts aimed at UK programmers were for jobs in North America, where the consultancy firm says pay might be higher.
Only a fifth of the adverts are for gaming posts in the UK, slightly behind the chunk that is aimed at UK programmers but relates to openings in mainland Europe, the firm said. Its geographic analysis of demand for such gaming consultants adds that Australasia is the only key economy that the UK outflanks, although Canada (without the US) is also behind.
But it is the appeal of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Quebec that London is trying to emulate, as the UK has recently adopted a tax relief initiative similar to but less generous than Canada’s. In particular, UK video games developers can claim a 25% tax break if they make use of British characters, language, dialogue or locations, assuming the game has “cultural value.”
Despite being appreciative of the measure, which was promised to the UK in 2012 but only approved last month, gaming studios now want to extend the relief to all games developed in the UK.
Procorre added: “The computer games industry makes a significant contribution to the UK economy and the government is right to do everything it can to encourage these and other specialist IT consultants to remain in the UK.
