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forty-year-old category. The awarding of the academy fellowship to Peter
Molyneux summarizes the history of the industry. Acclaimed for his game
design, he founded his fi rst company, Bullfrog, in 1987. Following acquisi-
tion of Bullfrog by Electronic Arts in 1995 Molyneux left to form Lionhead
in 1997. Lionhead was subsequently acquired by Microsoft Game Studios
in 2006 and Molyneux became creative director of their European studios,
including other British-acquired studios like Rare.
The structure of the games industry in the UK and Ireland has been
shaped by the increasing globalization of the games industry during the
past two decades. During this time successful game development studios
in the UK have been targeted for acquisition by major international pub-
lishers and investors. This has had a signifi cant impact upon the develop-
ment and creation of new projects as well as in some cases their location.
Whereas initially many of these “suitors” came from the U.S. and Japan,
more recently companies from India and South Korea have emerged. In Ire-
land the impact of the growth of online games (MMOGs, browser, social
networking) in the last decade has been signifi cant and corporations from
both the U.S. and Japan have been using Ireland as a location for sup-
porting their European markets. The result is that many companies and
employees in both countries are now highly vulnerable to changes in the
global market/industry, including competition from lower-cost labour loca-
tions, even if both countries specialize to some degree in dif erent stages
of the value chain. But new platforms also bring opportunities. In both
countries numerous start-up companies have targeted new platforms with
lower barriers to entry including the iPhone, the iPad, Android phones and
the online services of the main consoles.
CURRENT ISSUES: INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION,
SKILLS AND LABOUR SHORTAGES
By the end of the decade a proliferation of platforms, the growth of the
Internet and increased state fi nancial support for game development in
South Korea, China and Canada in particular were leading to a range of
new challenges and opportunities for the UK and Irish games industry. In
this section we critically examine some of the policy discourses relating
to the games industry in the UK and Ireland: namely, the perceived need
for state support to encourage/protect the games industry, the issue of
labour shortages and the related issue of the relevance and quality of edu-
cational courses. These issues are articulated in publications issued by the
respectively, but also are closely mirrored by reports issued by “indepen-
dent” agencies and consultancies. Similar discourses emerge in Ireland
but generally circulate in the media and press releases rather than in com-
missioned reports. Beyond general research and development tax credits
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