How can video game businesses plan for Brexit when Brexit has no plan?

This coming February I’ll have been running video game websites in the UK for 13 years. In that time we’ve faced and overcome many issues (some would argue pointless, but that’s a story for a different day) forced upon us by lawmakers who don’t really understand the internet. Even now. In 2011 we dealt with the cookie calamity legislation and more recently we’ve jumped through hoops to make sure we’re GDPR complaint. But in Brexit, we face a whole new level of uncertainty, one never before seen by this country, one that will affect us all.

With the cookie and GDPR legislation in recent years, framework and guidelines were laid down for us well in advance to get up-to-speed and compliant. Brexit isn’t allowing us to do that. The British government are winging it, and they clearly expect us to do so as well. That’s not how business is done. The first rule of business is planning, but how can we plan for something that itself has no plan at all?

For those that don’t know me, me and my wonderful team have been running video game websites in the UK since February 2006, when we setup our first site XboxAchievements.com. In June 2008 we opened PlaystationTrophies.org before snapping up VideoGamer.com in April of last year. You could say we grew up with the internet, starting when it was still really in its infancy. It’s changed a lot, but I can say with absolute confidence that in the last 12 plus years we never faced such an unprecedented era of uncertainty as we do now.

From a company standpoint, one that deals with a truly international audience — we reach all 4 corners of the globe 24/7, even North Korea! — going into a No Deal situation, or even one that doesn’t leave us in the Single Market, well, it’s a tad concerning, especially when we sell ads to countries, day in, day out. The fact the government in the UK doesn’t know what they’re doing come March 2019 doesn’t give companies like ourselves enough time to adapt. Heck, it doesn’t give any company enough time to react and adapt.

From an access standpoint, Brexit will hinder us massively in the UK. At the moment a good portion of the UK development scene is made up of Europeans, thanks to the EU’s freedom of movement — the diversity of the games industry, especially in Europe, is what allows it to thrive as much as it does. Imagine what happens when that freedom of movement, the right to live in one of the 28 EU countries, gets pulled from under the development scene’s feet. That means less development talent here in the UK, and fewer UK developed games, which from our perspective means less local access to games development here in the UK. Nobody voted for this.

That’s the problem with Brexit: nobody voted for any of this mess that we currently find ourselves in — not me as a person or us as a business. Nobody voted for this uncertainty. If democracy is implementing the will of the people, then what harm can a People’s Vote really do? It will update the will of the people and demonstrate the true meaning of democracy.

The people that fear a People’s Vote clearly fear what the current will of the people is — after all, we have a general election every 5 years. Why aren’t they screaming about the will of the people from 5 years ago, bearing in mind the Brexit vote was well over 2 years ago? What they actually fear is true democracy in action, and as a UK business owner in the games industry and a citizen of this once fine establishment, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.

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