Major Publisher Sabotaged UK Tax Relief, Claims Develop
Develop has ran an article which claims to have insider knowledge of a major publisher lobbying against UK tax relief for the videogame industry.
Tax relief was dropped in Tuesday’s budget, with the measure called “poorly targeted” by the Government. The article claims that “one of the biggest game companies in the world exerted pressure on the UK government”, but does not list the name of the company.
According to Develop, the unnamed company had “viewed game tax relief as a measure that would have given the UK an unfair advantage over other nations”, suggesting it was a foreign company that put up opposition. Develop says that the company held talks with “well-placed parliament allies” to prevent the relief.
In the comments of the article, a Develop writer says that there are “a number of things we can’t talk about right now. But trust us, truth will out in the end.” Another says that the information comes from “multiple, very trusted sources.”
Develop sound very confident and aren’t known for speculating over stories so I’d consider this pretty solid. As for the lobbying, it’s pretty incredible. Obviously the name of the publisher is the big story here, and it sounds like Develop might release the information at some point. I’d Keep your eye on this if I were you.
THE PLOT THICKENS!
Clearly then we need to boycott such a publisher.
And by boycott, I mean publically hang them.
At this point, we don’t know if this is a rumor or not. Bottom line, making games in Britain is gonna be a bit more expensive. Only thing that really can be done is wait to see how it affects the economy, and hope that the end of the recession sees tax breaks come up again.
@Hawkeyed One: Develop is not a blog though, they’re a proper news source and I’d give them as much credence as The Guardian on this.
To me though, the Tories seem opposed to the idea. While before the election they spoke about the need to tax breaks, before that they’d said they didn’t support them.
The Lib Dems seem to have little clout in terms of policy, so their (loose) support of tax relief probably won’t push through. The Government doesn’t seem to class videogames in the same way it does the film industry.