It’s always a bit of a hoot when politicians weigh in with opinions on video games but this time around one
is offering to champion the industry, in his own special way of course.
Ed Vaizey, the Shadow Minister for Culture, has said that the current UK government has strangled the British games industry.
He added,”While the video games industry has boomed globally, growing by 20% in the last two years, we have lost 44 studios representing 15% of the sector. NESTA research indicates that external investment in privately operated UK developers has dropped by 60% since 2008 and that employment is down 4%.”
As well as citing the current financial climate in the UK as a problem he also threw scorn on the negative press that the government has been heaping onto video games.
“Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, loses no opportunity to link video games with the most heinous of crimes.”
“Much more insidious was a recent photograph, of a kid sitting on his sofa. Listless, bored, fat. And yes, with a video games console on his lap. The message was clear. Playing video games is bad for your health. And who sponsored this terrible message? Well, none other than the sponsoring department of the UK video games industry, the DCMS, as part of the Government’s Change4Life health campaign.”
With the lambasting of his opponents done with Ed promised to give games a proper voice so that the UK can retain its place behind the US and Japan as a world leader in the games industry. This he did whilst deftly side-stepping the question of tax breaks for games devlopers.
“I want to make sure that the views of the video game industry is properly represented in this important process. I know most of you have been focused on an industry-specific tax break. But I encourage the sector to think more widely than that. So I am calling on you to make your voices heard, and send us your expert views.”
Some of the potential solutions are quite interesting. The Conservatives propose wholesale deregulation of broadband providers so that providers other than BT can improve the current infrastructure or even add their own to help the UK’s broadband capacity increase. The also propose greater emphasis on teaching maths and computing in schools so that our children are better equipped to enter careers in game design and coding.
Faster broadband infrastructure and access to a growing talent pool are very positive steps but if all the developers have relocated to regions where they are given healthy tax incentives then the UK won’t have an industry for these improvements to help and the traditions of great British games like Lemmings, Sensible Soccer and Grand Theft Auto will be lost.
TIGA predicts that without tax incentives that can compete with the likes of Canada and France the UK games industry will decline by 25% over the next five years. He says that he wants to listen to the industry. Well Ed, the industry has spoken and what they want is tax breaks.
This week:
