UK’s Next Govt to Fund Games?

Gordon Brown is suffering a slow and painful political death and like a Shakespearean tragedy it is being played out on the daily news for the nation’s amusement. With the recent embarrassments in local and European elections (and I don’t just mean Britain electing fascist lunatics) it is reasonable to assume that the UK’s next Prime Minister will be most comfortable in a blue tie.

So with this in mind MCV have published quotes from Ed Vaizey who, despite sharing a name with the Sherriff of Nottingham (at least in it’s pronunciation), seems to be quite liberal with his taxation plans for video game developers. He has spoken of his desire to see a video games related equivalent of the UK Film Council to promote the work of the UK’s video games developers. This is good news for what is now the UK’s biggest entertainment industry and the second largest market for video games in the world.

Ed Vaizey says:

Then you get onto the big landscape issues. Tax breaks is one, which is certainly something I’d be working very hard to achieve. The other is video games being represented at Governmental level. You’ve got the UK Film Council, but you don’t have a UK Video Games Council. That’s something I’d like to remedy.

Which stops just short of suggesting subsidies for studios but certainly indicates tax breaks like we’ve recently seen suggested in some US states. Presumably the British equivalents will not be restricted to studios who limit their projects to children’s educational titles, favouring all creative endeavours as the Film Council does.

Personally I’d rather watch my own toenails being pulled out whilst eating burning coals than see a Conservative government but it’s very likely in the next general election so I suppose finding silver linings like this is the best I can hope for.

Source: MCVUK