TIGA: Over 40% of UK devs who lose their jobs move overseas

A new report from UK game industry trade body TIGA claims that 41 percent of UK developers who lost their jobs between 2009 and 2011 moved overseas and took jobs outside of the UK. As reported by Edge, the report titled "Making games in the UK today: a census of the UK developer and digital publishing sector" explains that the most popular destinations for these developers were Canada and the U.S. Blur developer Bizarre Creations, which was closed down last January, was named as an example of a developer which saw a huge portion of its staff leave the country. Overall, 35 percent of the Bizarre staff left the country to find jobs elsewhere. The report also states that the UK game industry workforce decreased in numbers by over 10 percent from 2008 to 2011. TIGA CEO Dr Richard Wilson said of the report, "Our industry is suffering from a serious brain drain. Our competitors in Canada and elsewhere are able to recruit highly skilled developers from the UK largely because they benefit from tax breaks, which effectively reduce the cost of game development." He continued, "Tax breaks both stimulate job creation in the game sector and provide game businesses with significant financial resources which they can deploy to recruit staff."