Tax breaks for games industry

Chancellor George Osborne said he planned to introduce corporation tax relief from April 2013 for the video games, animation and high-end television industries. The industry has lobbied for such changes for several years. The chancellor said he wanted to make the UK the technology centre of Europe. Richard Wilson, chief executive of video games industry trade body Tiga, welcomed the news. "This is a brilliant decision by the government and terrific news for the UK video games industry. It is also a decisive victory won by Tiga through audacity, determination and endurance," he said. "Like a boxer knocked down by his opponent, we refused to accept defeat and kept getting back in the ring. This victory will benefit not just the UK games development and digital publishing sector, but also the wider UK economy." Mr Wilson predicted that tax relief for the video games sector should generate and safeguard 4,661 direct and indirect jobs, offer £188m in investment expenditure by studios, increase the games development sector's contribution to UK GDP by £283m and generate £172m for the Treasury. In 2010, then Chancellor Alistair Darling promised tax incentives for developers, a pledge that he never delivered because Labour lost the next election. The news came as struggling video games retailer Game said that it intended to file for administration.