A new report suggests that the French government has designs on poaching UK-based developers post-Brexit, which could upend a burgeoning and promising development scene that has become globally recognized over the past few years. Concerns over the impact of Brexit are nothing new to the video game industry, which has been faced with several political problems over the past year, including the potential for Trump tariffs to severely undercut the bottomline of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo - something that saw the three competitors unite in order to try to stop it.
Brexit has also been a discussion in-game as well, with publisher Ubisoft - coincidentally or not, a company with headquarters in France - releasing teaser trailers for Watch Dogs Legion, a game that seems to ponder what a post-Brexit UK could look like in a few years' time. While the end result will hopefully not be as dreary or concerning as Ubisoft's vision of the future, it's no secret that the world has had its eyes on the United Kingdom as it begins to untangle the mess that is the Brexit movement and the many repercussions that the vote has carried with it.
Now, it appears that another country will be looking to benefit from the fact that many UK-based game developers are anxious about what the market will look like post-Brexit. According to The Guardian, France has recently begun making a push to entice game developers over to the country, promising various support mechanisms. They're pretty exciting ones, too: a video game tax credit would offer developers a tax break of 30% on production expenses up to a total of 6 million Euro a year, while a video games support fund offers subsidies for creating original work.
Part of the reason France is so interested in developers is also because the country simply has a lot of games-related jobs that need filling. Video game revenue totaled nearly 5 billion Euro in France in 2018, and is one of the most important sectors in the country's economy, with over 5,000 jobs directly linked to the industry, a number that is still growing. Ubisoft is from France, alongside developers Quantic Dream, Arkane, and Dontnod, a fact that likely doesn't escape aspiring developers - there's a pedigree for success in the French video game scene that's eager to grow.
With 57% of UK games companies employing workers from the EU, Brexit threatens to shake-up or decimate the current structures of many studios. With that already being the case, it's possible smaller ones find it easier to pick up shop and move across Europe rather than deal with the fallout post-Brexit video game development could have. With an enticing offer from France and an uncertain future waiting for them in the UK, it's very likely we see some major movement in the industry before long, and France could stand to benefit greatly from it.
Source: The Guardian