Better still if you prefer the trams to the buses

Ahh, yes the tram. Can't bash the tram, it's clean and efficient and fast.

Its only downside is that it obviously only goes along the tram route, so you usually need to catch the bus to get to the tram stop, then catch another bus at the other end to reach your destination after you leave the tram... It's that, or get used to long healthy walks!

Then again, you sometimes get some pillock motorist that disables the entire tram network by doing something like this -

I take it you're a local lad?

So aside from Rareware, Sony, Rockstar North, Guerrilla Games, Media Molecule, and Jagex, what am I forgetting?
Are some of these new defunct or in otherwise bad standing? I haven’t been keeping up with the news lately.

Missed this bit...

Epic have 3 offices (Guildford, Leamington Spa, Newcastle)
Codemasters are just about hanging in there.
Creative Assembly
Frontier
Freestyle Games
Radiant Worlds (who came back from the ashes of Blitz)

Many other small studios/indies groups...

And, saving the best until last (not that I'm bias) Unity also have an office in the UK.

Been 10 years since I left UK shores for NZ, went back for visit a few years back. Here are my thoughts, more general as other have covered the specifics...

I started living down south and worked my way north to Scotland.

South coast - far too crowded

London - great if you make use of what it has to offer otherwise impersonal hell that will suck money from you. Live north of the river if you want to get Taxi from town to home :)

Edinburgh - my favorite city in the UK. Great people not to expensive.

In general it gets cheaper, the population density drops and people are more friendly as you move northwards up the country.

Public transport between cities is on the whole good BUT can be expensive. Just seen a friend post the post of his rail pass a year. Worthing (South coast) to London = 6500UKP/year

Public transport around London and other major cities is good, smaller towns and you will be walking a lot if your trip does not match a bus route.

I take it you're a local lad?

Yep

For weather in Ireland I would refer you to this

which has become the latest sensation in Ireland. I would also say we have two of the biggest companies in gaming which everyone forgets about in Demonware and Havok. We have a government who promised a lot of things in relation to gaming and never deliviered and then lost the web summit. We have some great graduates from UL, UCC, UCD and Trinity (cos thats what people care about). And some of the best people in the world on a consistent basis.

But the most important thing is thing is the fact that you lumped UK and Ireland in the same conversation when the countries are quite different in a lot of ways. Also in regard to scotland, wales and england. Very different.

I never paid bills in America but I recall seeing on TV they send checks via mail to pay.

How long ago was that?

I have not lived in America for 11.5 years and even then I never paid bills. I just remember things I saw when I was 5 (28 years ago), plus a recent documentary that showed people having to take their checks from work to some kind of office to get the actual money (WTF is that?!) and they mentioned also having to mail checks, but I assume those people must be really poor and don’t have credit cards.

Speaking of which, how about the differences between Japanese and UK/Ireland credit cards?
In Japan, the debit card, train pass, and credit card are all on the same card. I swipe my credit card to get onto trains and pay the bill later. How about there?
How hard would it be to get a credit card considering I am a foreigner?

The countries in the UK are like states in America right? You don’t need to do anything to cross borders, right? Hence “united”. But of course you have to do something to get into Ireland from the UK? Flash a passport or something?


Thank you all for the feedback.
Driving: I don’t drive in Japan because they drive on the left. It would be far too easy for me to make a simple mistake and turn into the wrong lane and cause an accident. But it seems a car is more necessary there than here.

Do you enjoy working for one of these already? If so you could consider asking for a transfer.

Square Enix, but our London office only does localization/marketing/anything not development.

Don't forget Creative Assembly in Sussex

Epic have 3 offices (Guildford, Leamington Spa, Newcastle)
Codemasters are just about hanging in there.
Creative Assembly
Frontier
Freestyle Games
Radiant Worlds (who came back from the ashes of Blitz)

Ninja Theory(Heavenly Sword) and Frontier(Elite:Dangerous). Oh, Lionhead(Fable) in Surrey(just outside London)

I will check them out, thank you.


L. Spiro

I never paid bills in America but I recall seeing on TV they send checks via mail to pay.

Here in the US checks are rapidly becoming passe (with accent aigu). Most payments are now either automatic from your bank account, or payable online with credit/debit/bank.

And for those rare companies that don't have online payments, your bank will gladly fill out and mail checks for you at no extra charge, either as a one-time thing, or recurring.

I never paid bills in America but I recall seeing on TV they send checks via mail to pay.

How long ago was that? Are you really serious about your enquiry whether people in the UK still pay by bills sending checks in the post? When I read that I almost thought the rest of your post was a joke. Maybe the oddballs here or there independent of the facilities available, otherwise its direct debit

To be fair, that is still a thing in parts of the English-speaking world. I live in Canada and I pay some (not all) of my bills by post. I haven't had a physical paycheque since about 2011, though.

1. How is public transportation? In most cities you can get everywhere without a car?
2. Which part has the most modern standard of living overall? London?
3. How is the post? Is it a major part of life or uses as rarely as possible?
4. How about paying bills? I never paid bills in America but I recall seeing on TV they send checks via mail to pay.
5. How about checks? They don’t exist in Japan due to being inconvenient.
6. How about mail? Can most packages be delivered to your local convenience store like in Japan so that you don’t have to be home nor have to go to the post office?
7. Weather?
8. Wall-socket voltages? Compared to Japan. I don’t want to short out everything I own by plugging them in.
9. Health care?
10. Insurance?
11. Are dental and medical stupidly considered separate like in America, or correctly considered the same like in Japan?
12. What is a typical benefits package at a company?

Bare in mind that I left Ireland 13 years ago but have been back several times since.

1. Public transport in Ireland isn't great. It's not too bad in Dublin, but the rest of the country is pretty terrible compared to Europe, Japan, etc.
2. Aside from public transport Ireland has a very modern standard of living. Houses are generally pretty modern, plenty of restaurants, etc. Dublin is the most cosmopolitan city.

3. The post is used about as much as it is anywhere else in the first world, i.e. not much.

4. Mostly online or by direct debit/

5. Never owned a cheque book in my life.

6. Post is not usually delivered to a convenience store.

7. It rains. A lot.

8. same as UK

9. There is a public health system, but it's underfunded.

10. Most people with a decent job will have private health insurance. Insurance is mandatory for vehicles (and expensive)

11. Depends on the insurer.

12. How long is a piece of string? Seriously, it varies wildly, depending on the job, the location, and the company. For a developer, you'll probably get a gym subsidy, pension, maybe part of health insurance group scheme.

All that said, Ireland is not really the place to go to "get ahead". It's a place to avoid the rat race.

How is public transportation? In most cities you can get everywhere without a car?
Which part has the most modern standard of living overall? London?
How is the post? Is it a major part of life or uses as rarely as possible?
How about paying bills? I never paid bills in America but I recall seeing on TV they send checks via mail to pay.
How about checks? They don’t exist in Japan due to being inconvenient.
How about mail? Can most packages be delivered to your local convenience store like in Japan so that you don’t have to be home nor have to go to the post office?
Weather?
Wall-socket voltages? Compared to Japan. I don’t want to short out everything I own by plugging them in.
Health care?
Insurance?
Are dental and medical stupidly considered separate like in America, or correctly considered the same like in Japan?
What is a typical benefits package at a company?

1. In any built up area public transport is very good. In London where I work it actually takes longer to get anywhere by car than it does by tube.
2. The Uk is fairly homogenous you get both poor and rich people living in close proximity to each other throughout the country.
3. The UK postal service is excellent. If you want to send a letter to somebody in the UK by 1st class it will arrive the next day.
4. Bills are paid by Direct Debit or Standing Order.
5. Checks are almost non existent. Even if you have a cheque book a lot of places will refuse them.
6. You can have the package delivered to your local post office or place of work. People in the UK are actually quite trusting and will happily have Amazon boxes delivered to their house whilst they are out and just let them sit on the doorstep all day.
7. This one is a bit of a fallacy. The UK has a reputation for constant rain but, it simply isn't true. People commenting have already said that the weather is miserable and that we hardly get any sunshine but, this is not true. London is actually the 6th warmest city in Europe and also the 5th driest (the wettest city is actually Millan in Italy). Obviously the winter is colder than the summer but don't expect any Dickensian christmas scenes with streets covered in snow because snow is very rare and when it does happen everything grinds to a halt because we don't expect it. Last year I managed to get sunburnt over Christmas by driving my car with the roof down.
8. 240v 3 pin plugs standard.
9. Health care is free. It is covered by taxes. However you do not need to be a UK taxpayer to receive treatment.
10. Vehicle Insurance is mandatory. House insurance is mandatory if you have a mortgage on the building (If you are renting you can get contents insurance for your stuff daily cheap),most employers will have some kind of death in service benefit or life insurance. Deducting part of your wage to go into a private pension is now mandatory too, if you don't tell your employer you have chosen a pension they will start one for you.

11. You can get NHS dentistry but it is difficult and usually not the best treatment. Rather than perform canal surgery they will just pull the tooth out and have done with it. If your appointment is cosmetic you will be charged for it even at an NHS dentist.

12. This varies hugely. Pension payments are standard. 4 weeks of holiday are compulsory. Payed sick leave is compulsory. Paid maternity and paternity leave is compulsory. Paid bereavement leave is compulsory (only 2 days). Other benefits that employers usually offer are season ticket / transport loans, life insurance, shares , bonuses, gym membership, childcare. The value of any loan benefit (transport, childcare) is tax free up to £10k, anything over this is taxed. Any health benefit offered by an employer is taxed (which is one of the reasons most people don't use them).

In Japan, the debit card, train pass, and credit card are all on the same card. I swipe my credit card to get onto trains and pay the bill later. How about there?
How hard would it be to get a credit card considering I am a foreigner?

All shops now use touch and go cards so you don't even need to swipe. The London underground also accepts touch and go credit cards to enter too (you are charged instantly).

Unfortunately most of the UK games studios are congregated around hubs so Cambridge has a lot of studios, London has a lot and Guildford has a lot. These areas tend to be some of the most expensive in the UK (Maybe Cambridge is a little cheaper). So if you work at any studios in these locations don't expect to be living in a 2 bed apartment. You will most likely be living in a one room studio or sharing a house with a bunch of other developers unless of course you already have a bunch of savings that you will be living off.
Guildford is the probably the worst of these locations. I have friends working at Lionhead and Supermassive Games and they are sharing houses with 11 other people.

Just a quick update about the cheques. I thought they were extinct but, about 10 minutes after writing this comment my colleague just brought his chequebook over to ask me how to fill it in because he needs to send his wife new passport to her and the home office will only accept payment via cheque.