UK's ability to support great developers is "questionable"

Following strong reviews of Newcastle-based Ubisoft Reflections' Driver: San Francisco, UK trade association TIGA has taken the opportunity to bang the "videogame industry tax relief" drum again.

[dirigiblebill]

Sad but true. Without tax breaks, we're getting slammed by the US and Canada.

[iamnsuperman]

That is what you get with a conservative government intent on cutting cost in all areas instead of specifically looking in areas that could be cut without grave ramification and a used liberal democrat party who are so not used to power they do not want to mess it up and support the conservatives in every way so you might as well call the conservatives. We have cuts in the gaming industry which is highly profitable, cuts in the armed forces when we are in the middle of a war. I personally can't believe I am going to say it but bring the inexperienced labour party in. The conservatives have no clue. If there not careful they could be out by the next general election but by that time it will be too late. The damage will all ready be done

[dangert12]

our gov don't actually care about what their doing their just here too make life hard and they was never voted into power they lost and joined together with another party to make the votes add up which is a con

[iamnsuperman]

@dangert12. That is a point. That is the problem with out FPTP system. Still better than the AV rubbish they tried to get in. The problem is we are at this stage where neither party is on top so a coalition was inevitable. It was not a con. The biggest con was the liberal democrats promises. Have the actually implemented any of them?

Our government needs to look at what is good in the country and making games is surprisingly one of those good things

edit at below: That is true and to be honest I haven't been a Labour voter but they are not leaving me much choice. I voted LD which was a mistake as they basically went against there own policies and are implementing the conservative's. I agree next election they will take a major hammering as their biggest vote comes from students. Cuts are necessary but cutting in the wrong place isn't. Look at the Armed Forces. They are in a war and the government thinks they can carry out the same duty even though some army officials have said we can't. We are already stretched as it is. The biggest problem for this area is the top heavy army. There are two many senior officers. Cuts have to be made but ruthless cuts is not the answer but tactical ones are.

[kharma45]

The cuts are necessary, have you seen the situation in the US where they've been too slow to do anything?

Yes lets bring in the Labour party again who got us into this debt crisis and whose former leader got us into this illegal war in the Middle East. At least the Conservatives have set a definite date to pull troops out.

They'll be fine at the next election, if anything they'll win a majority as it's the Liberal Democrats who'll take the hammering.

@dangert12

"oined together with another party to make the votes add up which is a con"

No, that's democracy and how most other European governments are made up.

[Jdoki]

@ iamsuperman "That is what you get with a conservative government"

I may be wrong, but I'm sure it was Labour, during their 13 years in power, who removed the last few breaks the game industry had. It wasn't until 2010 that Labour mentioned anything about new tax breaks - and at best that was a pyrrhic victory, as everyone knew by this time that Labour were sinking fast, and had created a budget designed to win votes, not help the economy.

Of course there should be breaks for many businesses who bring significant money in to the country. But to suggest that the Conservatives are doing anything different from what Labour would have had to do to drag us out of the crisis is rubbish.

The only difference is that the Tories are lead by someone who at least seems to understand that we are even in a crisis, rather than the Gordon Brown era, where he believed the current financial crisis would last ONLY 6 MONTHS. This from an ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer!!

[MrDead]

The problem with the Conservatives is they take money away from the wrong places. They do nothing to get money from the real culprits of the financial crisis, the banks, traders who put us here out of greed and the thousands of tax evaders that keep their finances abroad.

This is a good solution but the govenment are in the banks pockets so this probably will never happen, but it would bring in more money every year then all the cuts that the Conservatives have made so far. 0.05% tax on the financial sector (works out at 50p on £1000 of trade).
http://robinhoodtax.org/

[NuclearDuke]

Why do companies in the video game industry need support from governments? They shouldn't get a dime more than the local indian restaurant on the corner of 3rd and 5th.

[Kurt Russell]

It costs more to start up such business than your local take away.

[NuclearDuke]

You are also, with todays handling of digital distribution much more likely to succeed on a bigger scale. I don't see why companies are entitled to support from the get go, atleast tax monies shouldn't be used for this.

[Kurt Russell]

But the tax breaks would give fledgling companies a chance to start up and get off the ground. Tax would still be brought in from employees pays. I think companies should have more support, especially in todays climate.

[iamnsuperman]

Its incentives not really support. If a highly skilled workforce can be employed it is great. Companies want to maximise profits. So moving to an area with tax breaks is better for them. Not really support its just to get them to set up a business in the country so the local population is employed which has a knock on effect because the people employed have more money to spend on services and products increasing the local economy.

[Jdoki]

@NuclearDuke

It works kinda like this...

A tax break allows businesses to employ more talent. Talent that may go elsewhere (other countries for example) if they feel they are getting a raw deal.

Allowing companies to create more jobs means more tax ultimately comes in to the economy.

For example - lets Say UK Developer A employs 10 people and makes an average game that sells 100,000 units

Now, lets say tax breaks for that company allows them to employ 25 people, and they make a AAA game that sells 1,000,000 units.

Any money 'lost' from the tax breaks the company is given, is easily recouped by the additional money made off of VAT from units sold in UK, tax from the additional 15 employees, and can have a knock on effect, such as more disks need pressing, so more materials need to be bought, etc etc.

So ultimately, a small tax concession in one area can lead to large increases in other areas.

[NuclearDuke]

The idea is justified and I understand it. I just see no evidence that the "talent" that would move to other countries is actually gonna move.

[Jdoki]

I don't have figures, but it certainly seems like there are less developers in the UK now than in previous years.

Maybe most / some / all of the people made unemployed stayed in the UK and found other jobs in the industry. Or maybe some went overseas, and maybe others left the industry entirely.

It should be kept in mind that tax breaks can take many forms. For example, developers could be given an incentive to set up a graduate scheme. This has the knock on effect of encouraging more people in to a particular field of education and ultimately in to a particular industry.

No one running a business is getting it easy right now, especially small companies. But when you look at the potential for money being brought in to this country, the video game industry is high up there - so seems sensible to me to be given some breaks.

You only need to look at the increase in Canadian developers and the growth of Ubisoft to see that countries that give decent tax breaks thrive. And that's good for the wider economy.

[Reefskye]

The Conservatives said they would sort out tax breaks for game developers before they got in to power didn't take them long to scrap it after they got in. Labour, Conservatives, Lib dems... No difference they just tell u lies to get in to power, labour didn't get us in to debt either capitalism did. that's how Capitalism works!

Governments say everything with be cool after this debt crisis n preach that policies are in place to stop happening again.. but it ALWAYS happens again. Just look how many time it has happened since the start of the 20th century.

[Jdoki]

Yup. All a nation can do is try and ensure the impact of the cyclical boom and bust is as minimal as possible.

Unfortunately for the UK it appears Labour were deluding themselves. Brown said on a number of occasions that during his time as the Chancellor he had ensured the days of boom and bust were gone. I'm not saying he should have foreseen what the banks were doing, but he was wrong, and Labour were just as guilty as the previous Conservative government for widening the poverty gap between rich and poor.