The French government is trying to recruit game developers to come and work in the country. Their way of doing this is through the recently launched campaign Join the Game. The purpose of the campaign “illustrates the French government’s commitment to offer foreign publishers and developers – studios and independents – opportunities to discover the optimal environment to excel.”
The Join the Game website highlights many benefits that developers receive for working in the country such as tax breaks. Developers are also helped with funding such things as community events, production, and R&D. “Every year, the FAJV supports intellectual property in the production of video games, with financial assistance of up to 50% of the project’s budget,” reads the website.
The website also showcases some of the game companies that operate in the country including the massive publisher Ubisoft, Dontnod Entertainment (Life is Strange), Quantic Dream (Detroit: Become Human), and Motion Twin (Dead Cells), and more. The Join the Game campaign looks to be hopeful to add new names to this lot
Though never explicitly stated, France may be targeting UK developers with the campaign. In the midst of everything happening around Brexit, UK developers have already come out in opposition of Brexit and consider it a threat to the industry there.
In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE) CEO Jo Twist sees how the uncertainty of Brexit and campaigns like Join the Game could harm the industry in the country even with the government providing some of the same benefits the French government does. Twist stated, “The emergence of a programme designed to poach talent and businesses from the UK should remind policy makers of this fact.”
Twist would continue, “But continued uncertainty caused by Brexit and potential for disproportionate regulation of our industry without the support of a robust evidence base risks diminishing that positive approach – potentially turning talented individuals and businesses away from the UK.”