Brighton voices join the tax break call

Brighton-based studios NCSoft Europe and Relentless have added their support to the campaign for tax breaks for the UK games industry.

Speaking to The Argus, Relentless development director Andrew Eades said: "We’re not being treated as seriously as film. Most of our operating costs come from salaries – I could reinvest that money and be even more successful."

NCSoft product development director Thomas Bidaux added: "We have established an internal development studio within our offices and Brighton has served us well in providing a haven of experienced and talented individuals.

"Ultimately as a company, we must go where the talent is and we won’t limit ourselves to the UK. If financial circumstances don’t improve it might result in us developing our titles outside of England."

The comments come days after Ian Livingstone, Chris Kingsley and Ian Baverstock added their support to the movement – and it’s not just developers who are calling for the breaks, as we broke the story last month about the petition started by a British gamer keen to keep development in his home country.

[UPDATE: This story has been amended at the request of NCsoft, which wishes to clarify its statement.

Although the Argus editorial says "the company cannot guarantee it will continue to base its European operations in Brighton", an NCsoft rep told Develop: "NCsoft Europe has no intentions of moving its European operation from Brighton, we are investing heavily in people and infrastructure (aided by the Seeda grant reported last year). Thomas’s comment refers to the development of software titles only."]