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Thursday, 9th August 2007 at 12:22 pm

Eidos boss blasts UK Government

by Tim Ingham | Email a friend | Print

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Cavanagh slams lack of funding for British developers

Eidos chief executive Jane Cavanagh OBE has hit out at the Government for starving UK video games studios of funds – and said that the industry is “not being taken seriously” at the highest level.

The Britsoft firm announced its decision to open a giant new Montreal-based studio in February – a move which created 350 jobs, and directly contributed to Canada overtaking the UK in terms of development-related employees earlier this year.

But Cavanagh has pinned the blame for the UK’s crumbling stature as a global development centre on Parliament – and said that Canadian tax breaks are a “huge incentive” for UK publishing firms.

She told MCV: “Quebec offers a 37.5 per cent contribution towards development salaries, which is a huge incentive.

“Over the years, people have tried lobby for this sort of funding in the UK – in line with the perks given to UK film studios – and the result has been pretty much nil.

“It seems that this industry is not being taken seriously: not only in terms of retaining talent, but for foreign companies to come in and create a pool of talent.”

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Eidos boss blasts UK Government

posted by Retro Aug 09, 2007 at 3:35 pm

Eidos are a publicly quoted company on the UK stock market, not sure why Jane Cavanagh thinks the government (read tax payers) should subsidise her company’s development costs.

If there is an issue in the UK with games developers, then possibly this issue may have been caused by publishers not treating UK developers with the respect they rightly deserve, asking for tax payers pick up the bill for this mistake is not really on in my opinion !

Retro

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Re: Eidos boss blasts UK Government

posted by Mr Jolly Aug 09, 2007 at 7:22 pm

It's a sign of an industry that thinks it's got a right to exist and a right to profit as well, lets hope they don't have their EU base in Ireland with the 12% tax rate as this would look like they expect the UK tax payer to sub their operation.

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Re: Eidos boss blasts UK Government

posted by developer Aug 10, 2007 at 9:19 am

Those 350 jobs could have beeen created in the UK if the Government matched the incentives available in Canada or gave the similar breaks they do to the film industry. This is shortsighted on the Gonvernment's part in my opinion. The UK has the creativity and knowledgebase to lead the way in games and the Gonvernment don't see the asset they have.

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Re: Eidos boss blasts UK Government

posted by Retro Aug 10, 2007 at 2:29 pm

Agreed that it would be have been good to have had those development jobs in the UK although why should the tax payer pick up the bill to compete with Canada.

Eidos have decided to save some money, and therefore one would assume increase its profits by not placing the jobs in the UK, if they as a publisher want to lower their costs that’s a benefit to Eidos shareholders.

If Eidos want to lower their costs I have no issue with that, just don’t leave UK tax payers to pick up the bill and the blame