Moving On Up

I think the talent's already here, and if we did have a level playing field between games and film... the games industry is haemorrhaging these talented people to Canada and various regions where the tax breaks exist, so would they then come flooding back? I don't know.

Ubisoft's Gareth Edmondson made a good point in Newcastle, probably 12 months ago, where he'd told local government he wanted to create a studio there with 1500-2000 jobs, but needed them to help him. But the government's not interested, they don't understand it, it's controversial.

I don't know - I think the industry as a whole suffers from a PR problem. The perception of the games industry needs to change.

I genuinely don't know the answer to that. I think we could be a bit more responsible as an industry - I'm not saying censorship is a good thing in any way, but perhaps we don't do ourselves any favours. There's a perception that we're mainly about violent content.

Like I said, we've got a PR problem that needs to be fixed. I think on the political landscape, are the Tories just trying to score points with the games industry by saying they're going to take us more seriously should they get into power... will they do nothing when they then get into power? Or they might be genuinely serious, that we're a really important part of the creative economy that generates a lot of revenue.

It's a very good question. I'm sure the trade bodies are playing their part to some degree, but are they being proactive? It's all very well having a Manhunt fiasco, ill-informed and incorrect as the reporting actually was - at that point we trot out somebody to make a comment, but should those trade bodies be more proactive and be doing a bit more about the good side of the industry... and not just shouting about tax credits, although I do think that's important.

But then how do they do that, how does the message come across, and what are the positives? Look at the Change4Life campaign [which linked videogames to childhood obesity and death]... I wrote to the Advertising Standards Association to say that I found that offensive, but there wasn't enough fuss made about it I don't think.

If that's the perception, if that's what the country thinks playing games is going to lead to, however tenuous a link that is, then it comes back to us having a bit of a PR problem - but I don't know what the answers are.