Mind Candy

Our CEO, Michael Acton Smith landed himself on the front cover in the May issue of WIRED Magazine! His appearance on the cover leads to the feature “How To Create A Global Brand From The UK.”

 Michael isn’t the only celebrity in the office though as a few other Mind Candies got to star in the shoot too! In the far, far background yes…but we’re still there! 

The Management Team recently left behind their beloved Mind Candies in London, to fly to the brighter shores of California! There was some fun, some games… and a lot of work to be done whilst on the West Coast! Here’s just a snapshot of what they got up to…

The trip kicked off in San Francisco where management and some Mind Candy staff attended the GDC conference. This bought together gaming pros from all over the world to attend talks, conferences and to do some networking!

Whilst out in the US, the team took an inspiring trip to the Pixar Headquarters…

The Mind Candy Team inside Pixar's Headquarters!

Woody from Toy Story

This was followed by meetings, interviews with some potential new Mind Candies and a little sightseeing around San Francisco!
Michael also gave a talk at Stanford University and had a brilliant tour of the Facebook campus…

Inside Facebook's Headquarters

Next up was LA (aka MoshAngeles) to meet up with the Mind Candy US team in the Santa Monica office. Meetings here, interviews there and an addiction to the DrawSomething app later… it was back to Moshi HQ in London to share the stories!

Mind Candy in LA! (R to L: Brad Schultz, H/O Moshi TV - Divinia Knowles, CFO - Michael Acton Smith, CEO - Katie Gerber, Director, PR North America)

Two years ago George Osborne dismissed games industry tax relief but in a surprising announcement today, it seems there has been a U-turn in his decision.

Videogame trade body TIGA have long campaigned for tax relief in the industry and have expressed its importance on many occasions. Canada, the USA, France and Singapore are just a few of the countries that have benefited from tax credits for games production. They have therefore appealed more strongly to investors and jobs seekers leaving the UK industry following behind.

Our CTO, Toby Moore is just one of those pleased to hear about the news. “We’re thrilled to hear about the forthcoming tax breaks for the UK gaming industry” he says. “The move will help smaller companies get off the ground and enable bigger studios to compete for top talent. Tax incentives will help keep local talent here in the UK when competing against other countries who’ve had a much more enticing offering to date. The Government’s recognition of the UK’s tech and creative industries and their potential to produce world class games is a promising step forward in fostering technology, innovation and creativity in the UK economy.”

George Osborne has said that the UK games development industry would help to turn Britain into Europe’s technology centre.

Toby continues, “It’s a great start but much more will need to be done to boost the economy and to really hold the UK up against countries with far greater incentives.”

Toby Moore - CTO, Mind Candy

It all started when the folks at Moshi HQ saw this piece in Brighton’s  ‘The Argus.’  just before Christmas:

This gave us all fond memories of the treasured items we collected as kids so – we sent James a box of trading cards to help him restore his collection! We were excited to hear that many kids from the town had got involved – The Argus had printed it on their front page and one girl even gave away her own cards to help James! 

Mr Moshi invited James and his brother George along to Moshi HQ so they could see how the game is created and the people behind the monsters….