Gaming titans call on greater gaming UK investment amid foreign takeovers
Gaming veterans Sir Ian Livingstone and David Braben have called on the UK to ramp up its investment in the gaming industry following a sweep of foreign snap-ups.
Livingstone, who was behind Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft, told the Financial Times in an interview: “You’ve seen how many companies have just sold out earlier than they should have done because of being unable to get venture funding [or float in an initial public offering]. People were just not investing in the space.”
In fact, Livingstone is launching a new €300m (£251m) venture fund through Hiro Capital to invest in video games and metaverse tech to drive its development in the UK.
Meanwhile, David Braben, founder of Frontier Developments, said it was a “real shame” to see so many British firms, such as Codemasters and Sumo Digital, being snapped up by oversea firms.
Indeed, Frontier Developments is one of the last remaining public gaming firms this side of the Atlantic and Braben pointed to the stark differences between the US and UK, where success is praised.
This resonates with City PM’s recent interview with Darktrace CTO Jack Stockdale: “If you go to Silicon Valley, there is a lot more willingness to invest in people who have failed or whose ideas have no revenue prospects. Historically London is more used to classical companies”.