95 percent of UK game design degrees are sub-standard

Davey Winder
Thursday, 19 June 2008 20:04

IT Industry - Market

ComputerWeekly quotes Richard Lambert, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Director-General as insisting that "the UK cannot compete with the developing world on low-skilled jobs, so to thrive in the global market we must excel in the higher-skilled roles that demand expertise and innovation." Yet if Braben and others are to be believed these roles are precisely the ones at risk from sub-standard degree courses.

The fact is that unless the UK can keep up with the demand for games programmers, then those Games Investor predictions will come true. Unfortunately, there is little chance of that as Richard Wilson, CEO of the UK games software publishers trade association, Tiga, reminds us. Talking to ComputerWeekly Wilson says that there has been a 15 percent drop in students taking computer science, maths and physics degrees over the past ten years.

With the UK unable to grow its development businesses at an equivalent rate to international rivals, the only way for the industry is down. Ironically, this will mean that prices are likely to go up. If the skilled labour market is in short supply so the costs of those that are available goes up. These costs are then passed on to the consumer when the games hit the high street.

Although I would love to finish this story with a happy computer game ending, it appears that things are going to be more akin to GTA IV levels of destruction than Super Mario firework displays. Games Up? say the UK video games industry earned £4 billion globally between 2006 and 2008, contributing £200 million to the balance of trade in the process. Unfortunately, unless something can be done quickly and effectively to turn around the skills shortage, I am afraid it will indeed be games up for that kind of economic gameplay.