UKIE report suggests 40% of surveyed games businesses considering leaving UK over Brexit

A UKIE report released today has shown that 40% of surveyed games businesses in the UK are considering relocating all or part of their business as a result of the UK leaving the European union.

Of those considering a move, 23% say they’ve already been approached by different countries with Germany, Canada, Spain, Ireland, USA, Malta, Romania, Portugal, Finland, France, New Zealand, Cyprus and Australia all named in the report as places that’ve approached UK developers to try and attract their business. 51% of respondents are intending to stay and 9% of people declined to reply.

The access to funding and talent in the EU could be the reason games businesses are trying to remain in the union, with 32% of respondents saying that they’ve had access to EU funding. 65% of games businesses have said that they’ve needed to hire international talent due to a skill shortage in the UK.

Henrique Olifiers, Bossa Studio’s CEO & Co-founder, said on the subject: "Bossa’s award-winning games are played in every corner of the planet, generating 80% of our revenues from experts. We don’t export just games: we spread British values and humour to audiences far and wide. Due to the international nature of what we create, we fundamentally rely on global talent capable of crafting international products: 40% of our team comes from the EU and 10% from the rest of the world."

"The damaging uncertainty caused by Brexit to our EU employees, and not having open access to the brightest and best European talent, some of whom are now refusing to resettle in the UK, is forcing us to have to asses whether it will be at all possible to produce our future games in this country."

Bossa employ 40 staff in London.

You can read the full report here.