James Lee
15:50 (BST)
28/05/2008
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Tiga calls for tax breaks for UK developers
Industry body Tiga has announced the launch of its 'Games Up?' campaign, designed to highlight and help reverse the current decline of the UK's gaming industry.
It is hoped that the campaign will to prompt policy makers to combat the competitive threats from abroad, particularly Canada, which recently overtook the UK as the third biggest videogames producer.
"The story of UK games development has been one of success for the last 25 years. We have the largest video games industry in Europe we make a positive contribution to the country's balance of payments; and we sustain 10,000 highly skilled jobs around the country," said Richard Wilson, CEO of Tiga.
"However, our industry faces challenges that can no longer be ignored: in particular, heavily subsidised competition from abroad and skill shortages at home. Tiga will work with other key players in the video games industry through the Games Up? campaign to argue for a tax break for games production and for measures to improve the quantity and quality of graduates relevant to the games industry."
"With the right policy environment in place UK games developers can play a leading role in the global video games industry of the future," Wilson added.
According to Tiga, the UK went from being the third largest videogames producer in the world to the fourth when Canada replaced it by offering tax breaks and subsidies to game developers.
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