According to GamePolitics, Oklahoma state senator Sykes has proposed a tax break bill for game developers. Sounds like great news considering all the turmoil that has been going around lately, but what’s the catch? The catch is that all games getting the tax break would have to be at or below the ESRB rating of Teen, meaning that all of us “Mature” gamers wouldn’t see a break for the developers of our games.
The Bill reads; “Video games” mean products that are intended for commercial use or are produced for distribution on electronic media and which include an appreciable quantity of at least three (3) of the following types of data: text, sound, fixed images, animated images and 3D geometry and which are rated or will be rated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board with the ratings of Early Childhood, Everyone, Everyone 10+ and Teen.
While it’s great to see tax breaks for developers, why do they need such restrictions? The film industry has no such restrictions, allowing R rated movies and even MA-17 TV programs to get tax breaks. GamePolitics got the chance to talk with Senator Sykes, and this is what they got out of it;
[Sen. Sykes]… would rather not include the ratings restriction. Unfortunately, as he went around to his fellow senators asking for their support, the first question out of their mouths was whether there would be ratings restrictions.
He is well aware of the [failed] game legislation of [2006] and many of the people who voted for that bill are still in office and were some of the people who demanded the restriction…
He also raised some concerns about [possible] lobbying against the bill… His final concern was whether he could get enough support during such economic turmoil. Oklahoma is facing a budget shortfall this year and that may not make such a tax break very appealing to many people.
In any case, it would be nice for developers to get some sort of break in this time of need. Regardless of restrictions on type of game or not, at least someone could be getting help right now.
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