Gamasutra - GC 2007: EA's Jeffrey on Moving Forward in Europe

With all the current focus on the GC in Leipzig, this article discussing developer recruitment  in Europe with Mathew Jeffrey, EA'S European Head of Recruitment, touches a lot of bases, including the rise of newer development areas and the trends in where and how games are made:

Jeffery started by clearly stating that, "there is no recruitment crisis in Europe. That's just a myth made up by lazy recruiters and companies who don't offer attractive employment propositions." He continued, "Europe has the finest talent pool in the world, so much so that companies like Pixar, Dreamworks and EA recruit talent from Europe for America. That speaks volumes about our talent pool."...

....Jeffery expressed concern at the UK games development community slipping to 4th in the global list of developers, behind Canada. Jeffery said the debate had been focused too much on skills shortages, recruitment issues and proposing Games Academies for Geeks.

"The UK is losing its attractiveness for games companies to invest in comparison to other countries overseas," he said.

...Jeffery pointed to Montreal, whose tax subsidies allow studios to claim 37.5% of creative salaries after 2 years of business plus 40% tax credit for R&D, and to France, who has introduced tax credits. Lastly, Jeffery indicated Asia as a place to build new cost-effective operations with new talent pools in India, China, Russia and South Korea.

"People are geographically mobile and want to work on the best games. The danger is that we will see talent relocate to where the best games are made, Jeffery warned. "The UK, once known as the workshop of the world, [would transition] into the 'training center' of the world'..."