BETA | MIDLANDS FOCUS
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A RARE VIEW
Develop asks Rare’s senior studio director Craig Duncan how he feels about the Midlands industry and how developers can face the challenges ahead.
Is it a good thing so many microstudios are setting up in the region, or is this a symptom of problems such as the fall of big studios?
Freestyle Games Pete O’Donnell (right) listens intently as Codie’s Alex McLean (left) highlights the importance of start-up marketing spend
they did it on their own money, but they were able to release a game, and because the game was successful, they were able to generate revenue quickly. Whereas the big console business is quite different, you have to generate a lot of cash up front before you get it in return.
Speaking to the CEO of the Birmingham Science Park, David Hardman, it seemed apparent that finding investors that are specifically interested in investing in technology companies, and funding in this area in general, has been hard, even in contrast to the rest of the country. Williams: We’ve always found it hard. I’ve founded three start-ups and we’ve always done it with our own money. We’ve tried hard to get other money; we’ve just never been successful.
I think some investors have also
been burned as well; so some of the guys who liked the sector don’t want to come back.
Trevor Williams, Playground
Hidderley: We find that with the old fashioned traditional engineering companies, the investors are a lot more open; they know the business models. But we find that investors generally just do not understand games and technology businesses as much. We’re churning out a lot of entrepreneurs and good ideas but they just do not understand games.
Jamie MacDonald, Codemasters: I think that’s fair, but I think that’s common to the UK generally. We all have friends on the west
46 | DECEMBER 2011 / JANUARY 2012
coast of the US, and it seems as long as you have some decent ideas and a decent business model you can get the funding. Even in other parts of Europe it’s easier.
Hidderley:We’ve got an Oxygen accelerator program. They’ve been with us for 13 weeks and we’ve pumped £20,000 into each business, and then we’re trying to get investors in to come and see those people and their response is very difficult. We’re doing an investment day in London, Birmingham and Manchester, but they just don’t seem to understand technology as much.
Williams: I think some of them have also been burned as well; so some of the guys who liked the sector just don’t want to come back again.
Iain Harrison, GamerCamp: I think it leads into the Government not giving any help to the industry in this country. I’ve got a friend in Scotland who was at Realtime Worlds when it shut and he’s done a start-up. He was telling me the amount of help he’s got off the Scottish Government is phenomenal. They’re paying £10,000 towards the wages of every member of staff he takes on.
MacDonald: It’s an interesting one isn’t it? Over the years I’ve had quite a lot of involvement with government. But you know, it’s a dead hand.
Oliver:We got very close with the cultural cash credits. We eventually got the R&D tax credits being applied to video games, which was very good, and then we got better terms and squeezed more out of it over the years. So I actually do think we got somewhere, but its nothing compared moneywise to £10,000 per employee.
Pete O’Donnell, Freestyle:We’ve all been in games so long, and if you went round this
Ultimately more studios of any shape and size is great for the industry. It’s all about economics; a larger studio has the potential and bandwidth to create an experience that can change the landscape, appealing to a larger business opportunity and audience, but that opportunity requires more investment. A microstudio usually targets smaller experiences or parts of projects that it is hopeful it can get the funding, traction or opportunity to cover a smaller business cost.
“Business and publishing are both hugely specialised and varied subjects that need real expertise and focus in any studio.”
Craig Duncan, Rare There will always be a need for all
sizes and spectrums of games, and more competition will drive higher quality that is fundamentally driven by the talent and expertise within studios, so it’s a good thing.
Should young devs be taught more about business and publishing side? Absolutely. Making a game is only half the story, and greater appreciation of business opportunity and publishing execution will help developers of any level to understand where opportunity lies for them. Business and publishing are both hugely specialised and varied subjects that need real expertise and focus in any studio.
Has being situated in the Midlands contributed to Rare’s success? Being a first-party Microsoft studio, we look at ourselves as a part of a global company as well as a Midlands company, but here is great in terms of connectivity for UK and worldwide travel.
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