Parker: UK investment cash is going to Scandinavia, Germany
Domestic industry was too slow off the mark in embracing change to attract VCs
Consultant Nick Parker has identified that UK investment cash is leaving the country in favour of Scandanavian and German opportunities - largely because UK companies have been slower in adapting to new market movements.
Speaking at Evolve in London, Parker argued that whilst Scandinavian companies have embraced mobile markets and German companies have seen great success with browser titles, the UK has been less agile, meaning that companies like London Venture Partners have seen better return from external investments.
"Looking at the London-based investment comapnies... They're not investing in the UK," said Parker. "They're investing in Scandinavia and Germany. I can think of Jagex and maybe a couple of other examples, but primarily they're not investing here and there must be a reason behind that."
Parker was stark in his assessment of where and how investment money is being spent, claiming that "nobody is investing in traditional sector anymore." Whilst that is perhaps a slight overstatement, the figures presented to back it up certainly showed a huge trend towards investment in growth areas largely outside the UK.
"Unfortunately our development community has not been able to rise as quickly, in terms of responding to what's happening with the gamer," Parker continued. "It seems that mainland Europe has. They've managed to create, define and pioneer business models.
"We've taken a bit too much time to latch on. If you think of one of our major online companies, Jagex, they're still in a subscription mode. They might be changing, but we still haven't got any major primary developers in this country of the likes of Wooga or Bigpoint."
Bigpoint's Philip Reisburger, also speaking at the event, thinks this divide is the result of the difference in tastes between the markets. Whereas the UK's development community was focused on AAA console development - as was its consumer market - Germany had a much stronger basis in PC development and the sort of strategy and resource management titles which formed much of the foundation of social and casual gaming's nativity.
As such, says Reisburger, the industry in Germany was far better equipped to take advantage of new developments, whilst the UK was entrenched in a more traditional mindset, which its community clung to for too long to be an early adopter of new models.