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Blitz Bust


keef

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HOLA441

Sad new in Royal Leamington Spa:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24066065

... and locally:

http://www.leamingtoncourier.co.uk/news/local-news/blitz-games-in-leamington-ceases-trading-1-5483045

I'd no idea they were in any trouble. Codemasters is up the road in Southam, I wonder if they're doing OK? Interesting comments about the industry in the mobile age, plus: “We have sustained the business for some time with our personal savings but even those reserves have now been exhausted" - doubtless he still has his big house though.

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HOLA447

It's a shame to see Blitz closing, but it doesn't particularly surprise me if I'm honest. It's one of an awful lot of UK companies that previously developed for the middle-tier level of games - not quite your blockbusters, but solid titles that filled the gaps between the triple-A released, and sold at a decent price. That market is now dead in reality, replaced by mobile games, indie games etc developed by much smaller teams, and sold for considerably less. Plus, most triple-A titles drastically drop in price a month or so after release.

The fact that Blitz managed to secure enough projects to keep itself going this long is probably a testament to the Olivers imo, but as with a lot of these studios, it always seemed like it was teetering on the edge when you consider its diminishing output and large-ish workforce of permanent employees. Plus, as an independent developer (eg. not owned by one of the big publishers) I expect its nigh on impossible to compete for triple-A projects with countries like Canada where the games industry is basically state supported.

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I think Philip Oliver, when asked about tax breaks, said they they probably wouldn't have prevented closure in this case.

It doesn't have to do with making a profit, it has to do with how competitive the business can be in the international games development marketplace. The UK is quite an expensive place to make games for a variety of reasons. We are generally pretty good at it though.

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I think Philip Oliver, when asked about tax breaks, said they they probably wouldn't have prevented closure in this case.

It doesn't have to do with making a profit, it has to do with how competitive the business can be in the international games development marketplace. The UK is quite an expensive place to make games for a variety of reasons. We are generally pretty good at it though.

just about all costs are tax deductable off the top line.

Being expensive is a symptom of high housing costs.

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You can add the animation industry to the list of things that are state funded in Canada (and Ireland).

We had a good history of both games and animation in this country, but the tax breaks in those countries lured pretty much everyone away or resulted in studio closures (just look at the end credits of most CBeebies shows and whilst a lot of the concepts are british, the shows are made in Ireland or Canada.) House prices haven't helped matters in keeping the UK competitive, but then Canada and Ireland weren't exactly known for low house prices when this was going on either...

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Blitz basic 3d for the PC looked like a great idea, I thought about using that a few years back when I was involved in the seaside amusement trade.

Blitz Basic is (mostly) from Mark Sibly in New Zealand. Not related. It's now Monkey.

Blitz in Leam was well run and the Olivers are some of the most diligent and we liked people in the industry. They've basically been hit by industry changes and the console transition. They've been trying to do their own IP for years but changing from a contract model to an own IP one is very difficult.

They are doing a smaller restart. Before anyone complains about them being dirty about this, far from it. Also, while not be the best payers for sure, they have always been good to their staff and the bosses are apparently doing everything they can in the situ.

This is bad news for the uk game industry if it causes the better staff to up sticks and head abroad like so many others have done.

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