Tax breaks for UK game devs
by Ron on Jun.18, 2009, under Gaming News
Here’s the story. The Guardian is reporting that a suggestion has been put forward over in the UK to implement a tax breaks system for games developed over in the UK that are “culturally British”. The original Digital Britain report (PDF warning) states the rationale behind this as follows:
“In film a system of cultural tax credits has long helped to sustain a wide range of films that speak to a British narrative, rather than the cultural perspectives of Hollywood or multinational collaborations. Other countries such as Canada, for similar reasons, extend the model of cultural tax relief beyond the film industry to the interactive and online worlds. CGI, electronic games and simulation also have a significant role in Britain’s digital content ecology and in our international competitiveness. Each of these has the same capability as the more traditional sectors, such as film, to engage us and reflect our cultural particularism. They may in future have a cultural relevance to rival that of film.”
According to the Guardian’s story, it would appear that the real motive is protection of Britain’s own games development industry:
“Two years ago, the UK was the third largest creator of gaming output in the world. Now it sits in 4th place, behind Canada and marginally ahead of South Korea. The concern is that without tax breaks, British game talent, considered some of the most creative, best-trained and highly skilled in the world, will continue to be tempted by the packages offered at foreign development studios.”
Needless to say, this was published on Slashdot as well, and the readers over there had a field day coming up with games that could indeed be “culturally British” – imaginary but perfectly apt titles such as The Sims – Football Hooligans, Personal Space Invaders and Tom Clancy’s Surveillance Society were put forward. I suppose an important question here that hasn’t really been answered is: what would be classified as “culturally British”? For example, in the No Mercy map in Left 4 Dead, if the subway section was the London Underground (as one Slashdot reader hinted at), would that count? Also, in this day and age of globalization, how justifiable is protecting ones own industries?
