Develop

So at what point is the government going to step in to help studios then?

Good studio, nice bunch of guys - hope they're okay.

Fran,

what precisely do you expect 'the government' to do for the likes of Venom?

It's always a great shame when a studio closes as it creates a greate deal of upheaval for a group of people that have been doing their best in the jobs that they have had.

At least with the current skill shortages in the UK games industry, the staff from Venom should be able to get jobs reasoanbly quickly, but it's still a very unsettling experience.

However, there's not really much the government can do to safeguard game development jobs. From the report above, it sounds like Venom has simply run out of work. Given that the UK is a high cost centre for developing games, Venom may have been in a stronger position if they had been developing more of their own successful IP, Rocky notwithstanding. Being a studio that 'just' ports existing games to new platforms, regardless of how challenging, effective makes the studio a service provider, which makes them very sensitive to costs, as Venom's unfortunate demise show.

Well, you've answered your own question: "Given that the UK is a high cost centre for developing games".

Have you ever actually been to Montreal? I married a girl from there at Christmas, and was stunned at how cheap it is to live there. Not to mention that a lot of Canadian studios are now offering salaries equivalent or better than here. I've known people from Canada get offers at UK studios of LESS than they're currently on over there - simply because the studios can't afford to offer more. The UK simply isn't, on the whole, an attractive market any more for individuals looking to work for games studios.

Sure, Venom may have "run out of work, but you need to ask why: and I suspect an inability to find more quality staff (and no, I don't mean better) was a key factor in their not being able to develop more of their own IP. Not the only factor, but a key one.

Three years ago everyone wanted to come to the UK. Now? Quite frankly, a lot of foreigners wouldn't touch the UK with a barge pole - property prices, too crowded, the weather, etc. It's an uncomfortable truth. And maybe help from the government won't be able to address ALL of those issues - but it'll certainly enable studios to offer higher wages and we all know money talks.

The government isn't required to safeguard jobs, as you've put it: but is should be required to contribute to creating the conditions so that the industry can safeguard its own jobs.

Look, the government won't be saving the UK games industry any time soon, so let's just get over it and move to Quebec.
Oui?

Is it not more to do with the fact that they are only a 30-odd studio, with a game that didn't do too well and a port under their belt, and now Take-Two don't know what to do with them?

From a business sense, the sensible thing to do would be to shut the place down and absorb the people they want from them...no matter what country they are in.

The simple truth with all the studios being closed down or being 'aquired' by larger, corporate companies is that there is usually an arrogant talentless twit in charge of the company who has enormous amounts of self belief with absolutely NO talent or ability. I've seen it time and time again. Take it from me, I've worked in this industry all over the world for many many years on some of the most succesful IP's, the creative directors stubborn pigheaded attitude will grind the company to dust. They simply fool themselves into thinking they can solely come up with good ideas for games but they can't. If these companies tapped into the wealth of creative talent that exists RIGHT UNDER THEIR NOSES, they would be laughing all the way to the bank. That, sadly, is the answer you're all looking for.