Major publishers Activision and Sony have expressed frustration with the UK's recent withdrawal of game tax breaks, as Activision CEO Bobby Kotick warns his company will not invest further in the UK without tax relief or other financial benefits.
"For us to continue to invest in the UK there needs to be an incentive provided for us to do so," Kotick said in a Financial Times report that comes on the heels of the publisher joining UK trade body TIGA.
Sony Computer Entertainment UK head Ray Maguire said Sony would not waylay its existing plans in the UK, but that "any further new developments would have to be looked at." He said that in the absence of tax breaks, "maybe something that was planned for the UK would go abroad now."
Sony has significant development operations in the UK -- six of its 15 internal Worldwide Studios are located there, including SCE London Studio, Media Molecule, Evolution Studios, and others. Activision has only two UK studios, the racing-centric Bizarre Creations and DJ Hero developer FreeStyleGames. Both companies also maintain publishing operations in the UK.
Kotick pointed to increasingly competitive game industry incentives abroad as creating a greater need for the UK government to provide its own tax relief, an argument frequently employed by UK game developers and TIGA.
"The talent pool in the UK is among the best in the world for what we do," Kotick said. "But we really need to see some more incentives. We are seeing great incentives in Canada, Singapore and eastern bloc countries."
"For us to continue to invest in the UK there needs to be an incentive provided for us to do so ..."
Probably a repeal of the UK's anti-tort laws so that Activision has legal free reign to quickly fire and dismember studios as soon as they develop blockbuster franchises would do the trick.
Yeah.. because poor old Activision, EA and rest of the publishing world is doing so badly with their lack of profits...
Seesh, I'm a fan of the concept of capitalism, but this is borderline greed.
So, why dont publishers outsource games to india or china... if you need to invest into low level companies try there. Why dont you do it? Why is that Activision? I cant hear you? I'm Sorry, what did you say? "Because they dont provide the same games that the rest of the world enjoys".
To the game publishers out there, it can't be only about the money, it's a business, I understand that, but money matters 80%, games 20%. Without the money you get 0% of games but without the games you get 0% of money.
"So, why dont publishers outsource games to india or china"
...you're assuming they don't already. ;)
As the business elite say, 'you don't earn money by spending money'
Not that I disagree with you, Activision and EA are hardly hurting from the lack of a tax break... however, a lot of smaller developers in the UK could certainly use the help.
@gus one
It nearly -did- happen, and a "large publisher" (Activision, EA, maybe Ubi) was previously blamed for the tax proposal being dropped until a few sites did some digging on why the taxbreak was trully dropped. So I hardly see this article as a waste of time.
@Bobby Kotick
"The talent pool in the UK is among the best in the world for what we do"
By 'what we do' I hope he means "develop great games" and not "sound like a jackass as often as possible"... Though I suppose it could be both. ;P
@ Art ifex Oh, not only I am assuming as I expect to... But Ill be glad once that day arrives, the sooner China and India develop a strong (and demanding) middle class the quicker the world economics levels again...
Also, the price of moving game dev there would be even more rampant piracy, the same that accompanied the move of hardware manufacture to lower standard countries. Let them have all the know-how.
To smaller developers, unleass the tax is unfair (lets say that above all the other industries, or even a complement to regular taxes) then ok is not fair. From what I understand, it was as special lower tax to make the industry bloom, it may not be applicable in the world today.
If you can get 10 engineers from India or China who are just as good or better than 1 engineer from the States, why not do the same with programmers?
From a business perspective you could maintain the creative elements domestically and OS your time "blue collar" work overseas. It is inevitably going to happen..
@Michael Oh, Im sure it will happen, its natural. Its also natural that when/if the Indian/Chinese teams cant provide the work in time, or at a given QA level, suing them will be a lot harder. It will happen, before people realise its better to keep something in the developed countries, instead of the cheap ones.
"It nearly -did- happen, and a "large publisher" (Activision, EA, maybe Ubi) was previously blamed for the tax proposal being dropped until a few sites did some digging on why the taxbreak was trully dropped."
Probably a repeal of the UK's anti-tort laws so that Activision has legal free reign to quickly fire and dismember studios as soon as they develop blockbuster franchises would do the trick.
Seesh, I'm a fan of the concept of capitalism, but this is borderline greed.
So, why dont publishers outsource games to india or china... if you need to invest into low level companies try there. Why dont you do it? Why is that Activision? I cant hear you? I'm Sorry, what did you say? "Because they dont provide the same games that the rest of the world enjoys".
To the game publishers out there, it can't be only about the money, it's a business, I understand that, but money matters 80%, games 20%. Without the money you get 0% of games but without the games you get 0% of money.
"So, why dont publishers outsource games to india or china"
...you're assuming they don't already. ;)
As the business elite say, 'you don't earn money by spending money'
Not that I disagree with you, Activision and EA are hardly hurting from the lack of a tax break... however, a lot of smaller developers in the UK could certainly use the help.
@gus one
It nearly -did- happen, and a "large publisher" (Activision, EA, maybe Ubi) was previously blamed for the tax proposal being dropped until a few sites did some digging on why the taxbreak was trully dropped. So I hardly see this article as a waste of time.
@Bobby Kotick
"The talent pool in the UK is among the best in the world for what we do"
By 'what we do' I hope he means "develop great games" and not "sound like a jackass as often as possible"... Though I suppose it could be both. ;P
Also, the price of moving game dev there would be even more rampant piracy, the same that accompanied the move of hardware manufacture to lower standard countries. Let them have all the know-how.
To smaller developers, unleass the tax is unfair (lets say that above all the other industries, or even a complement to regular taxes) then ok is not fair. From what I understand, it was as special lower tax to make the industry bloom, it may not be applicable in the world today.
From a business perspective you could maintain the creative elements domestically and OS your time "blue collar" work overseas. It is inevitably going to happen..
"It nearly -did- happen, and a "large publisher" (Activision, EA, maybe Ubi) was previously blamed for the tax proposal being dropped until a few sites did some digging on why the taxbreak was trully dropped."
I only see this, which says otherwise:
http://www.develop-online.net/news/35224/Global-publisher-sabotaged-UK-games-tax
-breaks
Do you have a link?