Members of Scottish Parliament will be lured into a Committee Room where they will be handed wireless controllers and encouraged to play a number of videogames. Realtime Worlds and the game-connected University of Abertay Dundee will be lending a hand at the event, while Dundee West MSP Joe FitzPatrick will be acting as host.
The idea, says FitzPatrick, is to show politicians, first hand, how impressive the medium of videogames has become. The method is to let the games speak for themselves.
Shortly after the showcase, elected officials will assemble at the parliamentary debating chamber to discuss one of the most crucial issues for the UK games industry: whether there should be a more generous tax regime for game development.
The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) wants government assistance to help in the research and development of games. The organisation calls for tax breaks similar to those available in other countries.
Nesta’s call comes as the industry continues to put pressure on Gordon Brown’s cabinet for more reasonable tax breaks.
Last week, Richard Wilson – the CEO of games industry group Tiga – issued an open letter to business secretary Peter Mandelson, where he described the games industry as the “epitome of a high-value added,? ?knowledge-intensive sector?”, and called for internationally competitive tax breaks.
Two weeks ago, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce called for an immediate 20 percent tax break for game developers.
But today, MSP FitzPatrick will ask his peers to huddle around TV sets and present to them the core reason why the games industry is successful, loved and lucrative.
“We have world leading computer games expertise in Scotland and I hope that by holding the showcase MSPs will appreciate how important this industry is to our future economic success,” says FitzPatrick.
“Although the computer games industry is continuing to grow, despite the current economic climate, it is not growing as fast as elsewhere and the industry in the UK is at risk of falling behind,” he adds.
FitzPatrick’s constituency is host to Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds as well as its fledgling company Ruffian Games. “I want to see research and development in Dundee given the same tax breaks as the competition in France or Canada,” he said, referring to French and Canadian legislation which relaxes tax expenditure on R&D.
FitzPatrick added that he wants to see Alistair Darling, the Labour Government’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, take action on the issue in the upcoming budget (set for April 22).
It is said that the games industry employs some 1,000 people in Scotland, generating over £20 million annually.
“The games industry is growing but tax rebates are giving other countries a competitive advantage. Abolishing VAT for research and development would keep us at the forefront of the industry,” says FitzPatrick.
Realtime Worlds’ Colin Macdonald praised Scotland’s development sector, though added that even with a relatively small amount of government involvement, “the chances of us producing a greater number of titles and achieving higher levels of success would be boosted hugely.”
“With the most successful games generating revenues in the billions of dollars, that level of success would contribute greatly to Scotland's economy,” he added.
Source: Stv.tv, BBC, FitzPatrick.org