Recent reports have shown that fewer and fewer qualified professionals are entering the UK video game market, and the result is a serious slip as one of the most prolific and cutting edge games developing countries in the world. The reason is largely to do with poor quality and ungoverned degrees being offered by universities across the UK.
The image of game development may be a glamorous one, but the reality is that it centres heavily around mathematics, physics, and computer science. While there are 81 university degrees being offered in the UK only 4 of these meet standards set by the government that help ensure that the industry is well fed by graduates of the degrees.
Once possible solution, put forward by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, is the establishment of centres of excellence throughout the country. Schemes like this have been adopted successfully in other countries around the world and the result for some of those countries has been an improvement in their performance.
The UK has long been a dominant force in this profitable market, but we are slipping down the rankings having recently been overtaken by Canada and pushed back into fourth place in the worldwide rankings.
