UK development: Where next?

Well, we didn't get the chance to go through the stage where we shrunk the team gradually because the project got cancelled quite early. Keeping in touch with the guys, they've found work with Zoe Mode, or in Guildford or at Rocksteady in London, so they're all still in the same area. What's interesting is that the connection between all the people I know from NCsoft who have moved elsewhere is that they miss it. They all miss Brighton. Wherever they came from, they all miss it.

There's a bunch of German guys who moved back to Germany a couple of years ago. They're going to be coming back this week for Develop. To be honest, they don't care too much about Develop, but they know a lot of their friends are going to be around at that time, so it's a good reason to come and socialise with those friends. I think the positive thing that Brighton offered them was that they didn't know England, they didn't know the UK, but they wouldn't want to stay anywhere else but Brighton.

When we started NCsoft in Brighton I didn't know it either, but I was very happy to come here because I felt I could leave Paris and come here without losing anything, I could actually gain a lot in terms of quality of life. So if we're talking about the way things are going to evolve, then I think this is a really good basis. It's really solid. If you have that, plus a few successes here and there, then it should be a really nice environment and community for the industry to grow.

Well, if you mean will people react differently if they're on short term contracts, then it's certainly a change - I've only ever been salaried so I can't say how that feels, personally. I imagine there is some of that, but I also think that the flipside is that if you worked on L.A. Noire then you're involved in a seven year phase of creating something, something that's very high quality.

There's plenty of other examples where either a project gets cancelled or doesn't turn out to be what you'd expected. I'd hope that people would say "I'd rather be smart about the projects that I'd pick, go to the ones that I want and see a success because I'm seeing that those are running under this model, and successful studios are running under this model rather than exclusively salaried staff."

I can't speak personally about how people feel about a different set of working conditions - but I hope that can be offset by the fact that this is the modern way to get video games in successful studios.

I think in terms of working conditions then definitely I think it's about more choice for people. Obviously we're talking about a flexible workforce, and there's going to be a lot of full time people as well, but whether they're full time or on contract, having more studios in close proximity means that there's more choice.

I don't think any studios in Brighton have had working conditions as bad as those alleged at Team Bondi, but if people do feel that they're being taken advantage of then I think more competition actually empowers the staff more than the studio, because people are more likely to feel that they can get up and go elsewhere.

When e talk about brain drain the thing I worry about more is people just quitting. If they say, 'I'm done, I don't want to work in that industry anymore'

Thomas Bidaux, ICO Partners

I think that's an interesting thing, but there's a flipside. To answer the question about a balance between the staff and the company - obviously if someone's engaged on a contract and they're not really into what they're working on, they're not showing the passion, then they run the risk of not getting hired for the next gig. If the company isn't looking after them then they're not going to want to work for them again.

So hopefully, and maybe I'm being slightly idealistic here, but in an ideal world then I think the balance of power shifts slightly more towards the staff, but in a way that it should. A way that's more fair.

Yes - so if you're unhappy at Team Bondi, where do you go? Brighton doesn't have that issue.

Exactly. The interesting thing is, that certainly, there's one studio in L.A. for example that has pretty appalling working conditions in terms of the hours and pressure etc, but people go there, stay there because they're looked after in other ways, be they financial or whatever.

Stockholm syndrome!

Maybe! But there are other places to go, and people stay there. I think as long as people still have that informed choice, that's a good thing.

Yeah, if they have their kinds in a local school, what have you, and that's why they stay, because they don't want the upheaval, that's the wrong reason to stay with a company. I think that would be a shame.