Wedgwood: Development in the UK was ‘like a workhouse’

Paul Wedgwood, owner and founder of Splash Damage, has described the UK’s development industry at the turn of the century as "unprofessional" and "like a workhouse".

Speaking to Develop in an exclusive in-depth article about Splash Damage’s road from mod team to Develop Award-winning independent studio, Wedgwood explained how the studio’s unique benefit system – which sees employees given stakeholder pensions, health insurance, gym membership and more – was born from being dissatisfied with the UK’s attitude to development when compared to the US.

“Our thinking was that, at the time – 2001 or 2002 – I think the British games industry had a reputation for being a bit… crap. They were working over launderettes, or in their bedrooms; it was quite unprofessional. There was this image that people in the games industry were society’s dropouts.

“We didn’t like that idea – we’d been to the US and seen companies like Ritual, Gearbox and id, and to us it seemed like the game development industry was seen as better in the US. People sat in cool chairs in cool offices surrounded by action figures – it was nothing like the UK’s approach, which was more like a workhouse.”

For more on Splash Damage’s rise to fame, including how it courted its close relationship from id and how its success came from previous failure, check out the full article here.