What do developers want for Christmas?

“Globally: Less poverty, more peace. For the industry: More education of youngsters, players and industry of the potential of videogames as a medium. Personally: Achieving better balance of serving my family, company, community, and self, with more time to find and support great games as well as playing and making them!”
Shahid Ahmad, head of strategic content, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe 

“I wish I had enough time to complete all the good games I couldn’t play during the year. It’s easy to loose track as months go by, but looking at the nominees for various GOTY awards it becomes obvious how awesome this year has been, packed with brilliant titles. I’d also love a gaming-drama-free holidays season. Just a couple of weeks without that small but loud minority acting like petulant children and cheap reality stars.”
Imre Jele, founder, Bossa Studios

“My Christmas wish is that we finally hear that the tax breaks for games have been greenlit by the European Commission, and we can start to get around the country with advice on how they will work.”
Jo Twist, CEO, UKIE 

“Our single biggest wish for Christmas would be for the EU Commission to finally give the green light for Games Tax Relief in the UK. TIGA has spearheaded this campaign for more than six years now, and we are, we hope, within touching distance of victory. Whilst it would be a satisfying achievement of TIGA’s top political goal, the real reason it would be the best Christmas present we could wish for is because of the tremendous impact it would have on the UK video game industry. It would mean the more jobs being created, more investment and ultimately more British games being developed and sold around the world – the level playing field we’ve been fighting for.”
Richard Wilson, CEO, TIGA 

"My biggest wish for Christmas is that people enjoy the Elite: Dangerous Alpha."
David Braben, founder, Frontier Developments

“That all the machines have bumper sales and start to expand a new generation of gamers. There doesn’t have to be a war between the big boys, the smaller up-and-coming micro-consoles or the digital platforms – the whole industry wins if more people find, play and enjoy games of all stripes. Let’s all meet in no-man’s land on Christmas Day, boot up FIFA, and play nicely together. You can all go back to fighting on Twitter come Boxing Day, ok?”
Natalie Griffith, owner, Press Space PR

“As a developer, tax breaks. On a personal level? The Last Guardian on PS4.”
Stewart Gilray, CEO, Just Add Water

“Confirmation of games tax relief would, of course, be great. I’ve been working with TIGA on getting that for over a decade so it would be nice to see it finally happen for developers big and small. I’m also looking forward to reading some good books and time with friends, family, and horses.”
Jason Kingsley, co-founder and CEO, Rebellion

“That Apple surprises us with something new. Let’s be fair – it’s about time they did. Obviously I hope it’s able to be used by the games industry to further expand the reach of gaming.”
Philip Oliver, founder, Radiant Worlds 

“That I actually get to play with my Christmas presents (Super Mario 3D World, Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds and a PlayStation 4) without the bloody family getting in the way.”
Jamie Sefton, managing director Game Republic

“Tax Breaks would be brilliant. It’s a win-win for the whole industry.”
Ella Romanos, CEO, Remode Studios 

“This Christmas, I’d like to see the new generation of consoles move beyond the early adopters and back into the mass market.”
Darren Jobling, CEO, Eutechnyx 

“My wish: Battlefield 4’s PC bugs to be fixed by Xmas. Sigh…”
Nick Gibson, founder, Games Investor Consulting

“A game developer event for the UK on the scale of GDC USA. The United Kingdom has a storied and ever growing developer community that can rival Silicon Valley and it is a shame that we don’t have a showcase event that can bring this enormously talented community together. Oh and I’d like six clear days to catch up on a gaming backlog.”
Harvey Elliott, CEO, Marmalade

“All I want for christmas is: Lower CPIs (Cost Per Installs). Yet Christmas brings the opposite.”
John Earner, CEO, Space Ape Games

“That the Christmas regeneration episode of Doctor Who isn’t a load of old tosh. Oh, and probably world peace and all that.”
Stu Taylor, founder, Dead Good Media

“Critical and financial success for all our publishing and development friends in Liverpool (including us!), which would be helped no end by UK tax breaks finally being introduced.”
Phil Gaskell, director, Ripstone 

“Peace on Twitter, goodwill to all the internet? Not going to happen, but I would love for all developers to get along together. It’s a real privilege to be involved in this industry and life is too short to spend it bickering online.”
Mark Baldwin, community manager, New Star Games

“I wish my four-year-old would stop asking me for everything she sees advertised on Disney Junior! And I’d be delighted with another year like 2013. Growth and transition for many, and good rewards for hard work – that’ll do for me!”
Ian Goodall, managing director, Aardvark Swift

“For Christmas, I am wishing for a PS Vita with a copy of Tearaway! Tearaway looks so delightful and I already have a few Vita games from my PS+ collection.”
Sophia George, co-founder of Swallowtail Games and games designer in residence at V&A Museum

“It would be nice if the French government stopped acting like such blatant hypocrites over denying the UK industry tax breaks whilst increasing their own. I won’t hold my breath for that one.”
Cliff Harris, founder, Positech Games

“A PS4. But then I can’t find the time to play all the games, so a Vita, which I can at least commute with.”
Andrew Smith, managing director, Spilt Milk Studios

“I wish to find enough time to play the Xbox 360 and PS3 games I embarrassingly haven’t played before the deluge of next-gen titles hits.”
Wesley Adams, marketing specialist, Autodesk

“My wishes are simple; I’d like to be pleasantly surprised by a game again. You know the type: one of those titles that you pick up out of curiosity, stumble upon, have recommended by a friend or even receive as a Christmas present (hint!). It has to be one of those that you’ve heard nothing about it – you load it up, sit down and turn down the lights and for the duration you’re challenged, surprised, amused, engrossed and lost in whatever world it throws at you.”
Fin McGechie, creative director, Beartrap Games

"New socks.”
Gareth Edmondson, CEO, Thumstar

“Personal wish: A PS4 obviously. Professional wish: Much better and clearer financial support for new companies and indies. There are options out there, but they’re covered in a mess of paperwork and obscurity.”
Andy Esser, lead programmer, Zero Dependency

“A Leeds United-skinned PS4, signed by the entire first team!”
Tim Coupe, Transformers Universe executive producer, Jagex

“In these last months I had the pleasure to meet and being inspired by developers and publisher across all the different game realities that London has to offer. I wish for Christmas, and for the coming year, that I will be able to keep doing this and I hope game development will become my stable, long-term occupation.”
Alan Zucconi, independent developer

“The one thing I always want: Magic cards! For the industry I’d like to see more unity – the equality issues, the snide about F2P and the indie snob that floats about we could all do without. I’d also like to see more Unity.”
Will Luton, senior designer, TinyCo

“A personal wish: An 128GB iPad Air, as I’ve been playing some great games on tablet. Some really surprising and intricate gameplay, but also a huge range of experiences, and I’ve been loving playing games in this way – just getting fed up with deleting them to fit movies on as well.”
Nick Button-Brown, studio head, Improbable