Tiga urges government to create competitive environment

Following Eidos' decision to move its production services from London to Montreal, UK trade association Tiga has warned the government that it must create a fair competitive environment for UK games developers.

Eidos cited Quebec's heavily-subsidised, lower cost environment as a reason for the move.

"UK games developers can compete successfully against games developers all over the world where market conditions are fair," said Tiga CEO Richard Wilson.

"The UK is the fourth largest developer of games in the world in terms of revenue generation. Games developers contribute 30 per cent of the country's media exports.

"However, Canadian government subsidies for games developers mean that the playing field is increasingly tipped against UK based games developers."

Wilson said that UK games developers want to compete in a fair global market, but that the UK Government should make it a priority to determine whether incentives offered by Canada violate World Trade rules.

"If they do, as seems likely, the Government must take action via the World Trade Organisation against Canada at the earliest opportunity," he said.

âHowever, a WTO ruling on the issue could take years to reach and UK games developers are losing jobs now. The Government should therefore introduce tax breaks for game production in the UK in order to level the playing field against unfair competition.

"We need this measure as soon as possible - an announcement by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his Budget on March 12 would be ideal."