Well, it was inevitable, wasn’t it. In their Emergency Budget on Tuesday, the coalition Government scrapped plans for tax relief aimed at the video games sector. Despite the vast amount of lobbying carried out by TIGA, who delivered a petition on the matter to Number 10 only the day before, and ELSPA, the economic climate was deemed in too poor a condition to support such measures. Indeed, with many governmental departments facing budget cuts of a quarter and the benefits system taking a pounding it would have been a hard one to justify to the general public.
Rather than give support to specific sectors, the Chancellor opted for a broader approach; from next year Corporation Tax will be cut to 27%, with a further 1% cut in each of the following three years. Speaking on TIGA’s website, their CEO called this “welcome, but does not address the specific needs of the video game sector”.
Wilson also went on to say that “the UK video games industry is export oriented, high tech, highly skilled and low carbon in output. This is an industry of the future which the Government should be supporting with action, not words.” Further warning of the possibilities of job losses and brain drain to foreign markets.
Some may feel let down by the various policies issued by all three of the main parties leading up the General Election, but I think at such a time all such promises should be taking with a hefty grain of salt. Given the state of the economy, Labour were seemingly writing blank cheques to win over voters, and as you’d expect the other parties were trying to say exactly what you’d want to hear just to grab your vote.
I may be cynical, but I also like to think I’m a realist. The passion with which MPs of all colours have spoken about the industry should show everyone that video games do have support from within the House of Commons, however this is just not the right time to throw radical support behind us. At a time when benefits focusing on housing and children are being slashed, I see it being nigh on impossible for the mainstream press to react positively to such a move. Labour and the SNP have already thrown weight behind a further TIGA campaign to achieve tax relief, meaning the issue is far from dead, and, most interesting of all, it has been confirmed that Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey will be appearing at the Develop conference in July. Stay tuned for that keynote.
I make my living as a programmer at a British games developer. In my spare time I try and spread myself between writing, gaming, drumming, goalkeeping, rolling dice and keeping my hair blue. Somewhere around that my wife fits in.
Disclaimer: the views expressed are my own and do not neccessarily reflect those of my employer. "
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[...] and governmental manipulation aside for the moment, another point of view offered by James Thomas at 7 out of Ten was that with cuts being made to housing and children, now was not the right time to have the [...]