Global publisher sabotaged UK games tax breaks

    My money is on Ubisoft.

    However there may be more to it than the article wants you to think. It could be that a publisher did lobby to get it cancelled but that at the end of the day it may have been primarily becuase it just didn't fit the budget. The publisher who tried to get it cancelled must have no or very few development studios in the UK. At the same time however, the UK government presumably did listen to what they had to say? Why would they listen to a company who has no offices in their country, and employs no one, at the expense of their own companies and jobs? All while discussing a deal that had as sole goal to help exactly those people and companies?

    A UK tax break, if it were to be succesful, could kickstart a process of reverse brain-drain, which could make a lot of companies nervous. The number of brits working abroad in the games industry is quite huge, a strong home development scene would cause a number of these to return home.

    Isn't britain fucked when it comes to economics right now (as with the rest of europe). I don't really think there will be much tax breaks anywhere

    We where originally promised it by the previous government and during the election both other party's said they would support it, but after forming a joint government clearly they didn't follow through on it. But yea I am sure they looked for any reason to get rid of it after the stupid labour government fucked everything up.

    That said some studio head (think that was his title) has said when at a meeting about it a few months back MP's told him they where getting conflicting views from publishers.

    It's not shocking to be honest you should see the digital act thing they are pushing through thankfully some of the worst of that has been taken out, still ISP's will soon be forced to hand over user data to movie studios etc.

    My money is on EA. My logic is this:

    - Publisher has to have been involved on the territory on a massive enough scale to have such ties with the government or the parlament

    - Publisher has to have very few remaining interests there, including no studio for whom the tax breaks would be a welcome news

    - Publisher would most likely have stayed very quiet during the initial talks, instead of joining TIGA and lobbying in favor of tax breaks.

    And when you think about these things, you start realizing that Ubi currently has a studio in the UK (Reflections), that both Activision and Ubi had joined TIGA to lobby for tax breaks, and that while EA had its headquarters and a huge dev studio in Chertsey for many years, they have now closed down and moved out of that location for a few years and currently do not own any studio in the UK (that I am aware of)

    All in all, EA fits the bill. Their huge studios are in Canada and California, and their move from Chertsey just validates their very limited hold in Europe (EA Mobile is in Frankfurt, and that's about it) while retaining some key business contacts with the parlament after having been that big in the UK before.

    Yep EA fully owns them. EA have a fair few studios and interests here. There have been one or two others who have sort of backed the story but noting else has really come out. Has kind of drawn away from the fact that we lost the break in the first place. I think its going to suck for the future of the industry here.

    Quote from Furyo

    My money is on EA. My logic is this: - Publisher has to have been involved on the territory on a massive enough scale to have such ties with the government or the parlament

    - Publisher has to have very few remaining interests there, including no studio for whom the tax breaks would be a welcome news

    - Publisher would most likely have stayed very quiet during the initial talks, instead of joining TIGA and lobbying in favor of tax breaks.

    And when you think about these things, you start realizing that Ubi currently has a studio in the UK (Reflections), that both Activision and Ubi had joined TIGA to lobby for tax breaks, and that while EA had its headquarters and a huge dev studio in Chertsey for many years, they have now closed down and moved out of that location for a few years and currently do not own any studio in the UK (that I am aware of)

    All in all, EA fits the bill. Their huge studios are in Canada and California, and their move from Chertsey just validates their very limited hold in Europe (EA Mobile is in Frankfurt, and that's about it) while retaining some key business contacts with the parlament after having been that big in the UK before.

    Perhaps but I believe one of the things that were important for the british government were the cultural value and impact of games. Some of Britains biggest "export IPs", things such as Harry Potter and LOTR, are owned by EA... If the tax break would have gone through, EA would have had the best product portfolio of them all to claim it.

    Warner has the rights to make LOTR games, not EA. And Turbine, makers of LotRO, was bought by Warner, too.

    I think LEGO Harry Potter is also WBIE though the movie SKUs are still EA.

    Tangentially, is it crazy to assume WBIE will eventually make LEGO Lord of the Rings games? I mean...with all the characters and the hack and slash potential, it's gotta happen...right?

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

Register Yourself Login