Most companies want to play a part in nurturing new talent and nowhere more so that the creative and digital industries. However, having the capacity to do this is a significant issue no matter how philanthropic the ideology of the organisation.

Particularly in the realm of development - games, apps, web - to meet the speed of the marketplace, and compete at a significant level, the design and production cycle needs to be short and lean and leaves little capacity for bringing through this new generation.

A quote from an interview on www.gamesindustry.biz with Gordon Hall of The Blast Furnace about their work with Activision to reboot its IP for mobile highlights the barriers studios face:
"This is such an important operation for us we're not going to be seeding new talent and growing that, not for the foreseeable future. What we're looking for is industry veterans who know what they do, work great in a team and bring in the skill sets that we need." Link to full article here.

This is quite significant as The Blast Furnace are a Leeds based company formed by Activision to focus on the mobile platform. The move was hailed as a significant step towards the regionalisation of the industry, and a vote of confidence for the north as the studio plans to ultimately employ a team of 40.

With the need for 'industry veterans' it's not clear what the recruitment strategy and timescale will be but hopefully the lifestyle draw of the north can help to keep talent local or lure it back from the far reaches of the development world. Hopefully - if The Blast Furnace can continue to get those industry veterans in and producing the goods - they will be able to bring through that vital next generation and also inspire even more studios to make their base here through the success of theirs.