Sony & Activision Join Tax Outcry

With the tax break rug pulled out from under the gaming industry, as covered here, the outcry is growing, with both Sony and Activision joining the crowd of outraged voices.  In a piece by the Financial Times, Activision’s Bobby Kotick was quoted as saying:

“For us to continue to invest in the UK there needs to be an incentive provided for us to do so.  The talent pool in the UK is among the best in the world for what we do. But we really need to see some more incentives. We are seeing great incentives in Canada, Singapore and eastern bloc countries.”

Sony, who have a number of studios based in the UK, including Media Molecule, developers of Little Big Planet, said that although the current studios were safe, “any further new developments would have to be looked at.” With SCE’s managing director, Ray Maguire also stating that “maybe something that was planned for the UK would go abroad now.”

With the UK slipping to fifth place on the list of the biggest global games developers, without tax incentives, Britain will still be viewed as an expensive place to invest and risks more talent fleeing for the industry friendly Canada or France.  While TIGA and others have promised to fight on, others, including Labour MP Tom Watson who was a keen backer of the proposal before the election are less optimistic given the opposition from key ministers.

Source : FinancialTimes & Develop-Online

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