Devs Answer: How will the Brexit decision impact your business?

Today's certainly been a momentous day in global history. Last night, The United Kingdom voted 52-48 percent to exit the European Union, a decision that has global economic and political implications. UK Interactive Entertainment has promised to help ensure stability for British game developers, but impending changes to everything from taxes to immigration could affect the lives of game developers around the globe. 

We're still preparing a longer analysis on the impact of Brexit on the game development community, but for our weekly Devs Answer column we've decided to ask our Twitter followers how they feel "Brexit" will impact their lives. 

The results have not been heartening. 

Remember, if you're interested in participating in these conversations in the future, make sure to follow @Gamasutra on Twitter. The questions usually go out on Fridays in the late morning, Pacific time, alongside Tweets of our regular news, blogs, and original writing.

Along with asking readers for their general opinion, we polled our audience to see if they thought the Brexit decision was good for their business. While a insignifianct portion viewed the decision as having "no effect," only a small majority believed it would be helpful. The vast majority of poll respondants do believe the Brexit decision will not be good for their work in the games industry. 

Following up on this poll, several readers shared their company's status as it relates to the decision to leave the EU, and the ramifications are already apparent for the multicultural world of game development. 

One developer, a Danish indie dev living in the UK, doesn't know if he'll be able to stay in the country, or if he'll be able to easily hire developers from the EU.

Another UK citizen currently based in the US who works as a game producer and is used to making trips to meet with developers in the EU can't help but see this as bad news.

Another points out that UK developers enjoy certain benefits under current EU regulations, but that could change once Brexit is complete.

And Sports Interactive developer Miles Jacobson swung by to link his blog post with his extensive thoughts on the subject. We've linked it below for you to read, but glancing over it, Jacobson is cautious on the major legal changes the UK will undoubtedly see, and worries about what it would take to staff his company with mid-level talent from the EU. (Though he is optimistic about acquiring new office space thanks to a housing drop.)

Some developers did weigh in wanting to say they were simply opting to keep calm and carry on.

One Brighton developer is mildly pleased that the historic exchange rate shifts will favor his company in payouts from the Steam and Oculus stores.

And finally, in the wake of these slightly unexpected events, we appreciated this engine-based humor from a developer in Surrey.