The Hollywood Reporter: More than three-quarters of Britain’s video game developers plan to apply for tax incentives that the government intends to launch next spring, but some have expressed concerned about a condition that allows only games with British cultural content to be eligible, the Financial Times reported.
5 comments:
This doesn't seem to be legal. How could the government be allowed to deny tax cuts to those who provide so much for the industry? I assume that they believe that only those with Brit content will earn revenue for the economy but in fact, those video games based on exotic locations would have more appeal to gamers. After all, video games are meant as a seclusion from what we see everyday. Except for GTA, cuz you know that stuff happens in the 'Burgh everyday.
Two points to make about this one:
1. If the Grand Theft Auto team was required to place their game in the UK in order to qualify for tax benefits, is a game about shooting up random passersby and running over hookers really furthering the national image or the individual images of your cities?
Strike that. Guns are illegal in the UK. So baseball batting random passersby?
2. Shouldn't the government be looking to incentivize commerce through game production, rather than placing demands on the creators to fit the bill?
Strike that. That's America's current political struggles.
Okay, here's a third.
3. The issue of identifying what a "British feel" is again leaves the issue way too open to interpretation and question, which will increase the government's need to oversee this issue and likely to defend itself against major companies objecting (or, even worse, moving their production out of the UK, thus killing the revenue stream from the company itself). Read the article above and my comment about the NEA for further comment on the government's role in judging the worth of artistic ventures.
I think that one's pretty solid.
I have to say, I side firmly against the video game companies on this one. It seems to me that the law is written in order to incentivize British Culture's inclusion in the arts, not to promote arts in general as many of these companies seem to be arguing. If they want a tax break for video games, like some US towns have tax breaks for film, then you make that law. This is not the same.
I do agree with Brian however that the question of figuring out what a "British feel" is will be difficult to answer, but the article seems to lay out a fairly clear path in that direction. They are things involving British settings, characters, and national identities like Football. GTA fits none of those- no argument.
dI would love to ask the creators of this tax cut just what they are trying to cause with the cut. One result they might be aiming for is to raise the number of games that promote British culture. If this is the case then the law as it is written seems very effective to me. If their goal is to promote the video game industry in the UK then they should consider changing the law to include companys like rockstar (the company that makes the GTA games)
It's the government. They get to make whatever rules they want about how they spend our money, however impractical or just silly. In return for granting them that authority, we (and even the pommies) get to overthrow the government peaceably on a regular basis. That being said, this is another instance of government getting into the business of controlling what gets produced in the free market (or in the art market, if you consider video games art, a viewpoint for which I'm sure a case could be made). I don't personally think that this is good for the markets of ideas, creativity or commerce, and tax incentives would be much better spent where true problems exist: child hunger might be a good start. I don't think whether or not "GTA Tottenham" gets the green light qualifies (although that would be cool).
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