The UK government is to start offering tax breaks to British-based developers, providing they can pass a ‘Britshness’ test.
Britain hasn’t been the best place for game developers when it comes to help from the government. Despite turnovers that are in the billions of pounds bracket, there has been little incentive to keep development in the country thanks to the lack of competitiveness compared to places like Canada.
But all that is about to change, as the recently released ‘Digital Britain’ report proposes that games should receive tax breaks as long as they can pass a test proving that they are ‘Culturally British’. What this phrase actually means remains to be seen however and a lot will hinge on its definition.
A similar test has been in place for movies for some time, and has drawn some criticism for allowing clearly non-British works to qualify as ‘Culturally British’. One thing is for certain though, this is going to save Peter Molyneux an awful lot of money.
Source: Eurogamer
