Games could get film-style tax credits

The British Government has launched its new strategy paper: Creative Britain: New Talents for a New Economy.

The new strategy has been announced by the secretary of state for culture media and sport, Andy Burnham, and is designed to research the economic benefits of the creative industries and raise awareness of the current R&D tax credit scheme available for the games industry.

The paper also intends to identify the barriers to investment in next generation broadband and to take action in removing constraints on future development of the market. Furthermore, the UK will lead in opposing practices that unfairly distort competition, such as whether the incentives offer by Canada to video game companies contravene WTO rules.

The Government’s commitment to bring creative industries from the margins to the mainstream of the economy and policy thinking shows a marked change to the government’s attitude towards creative industries which can only be good for the games sector” said Paul Jackson, Director General of ELSPA.

"We are very pleased that Andy Burnham linked the idea of film credits to support for the video games development community. Whilst we are very different in terms of content we face many of the same issues.

We are also glad to see Margaret Hodge looking into whether the Canadians have been anti competitive. Going to the WTO is the modern equivalent of ‘sending a Gunboat’… So Hurray, unfortunately this gunboat takes a decade to arrive!"

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