Mature games are now eligible for funding, retroactive to projects from 2014 -- and the government is getting more flexible about smaller-budget games and staffing costs, too.
The French government has loosened up regulations for its video game tax breaks, allowing mature projects and smaller projects to now become eligible for its programs.
Now, games rated PEGI 18 (which is levied against very violent titles, according to the ratings association's website) will be eligible for breaks. They were previously ineligible. The eligibility is now retroactive, to 2014.
The minimum budget for applicants has also been lowered, from €150,000 to now €100,000 (approximately $112,007 at today's exchange rates.) Staffing costs "indirectly linked" to production of the game can now count towards the budget, too.
There's a bit more info at the website of French industry trade organization Syndicat National du Jeu Vidéo, which backed the legislation -- and of course, the info is also available in French.
"This reform is the result of a long dialogue with the Minister of Culture and the Junior Minister for the Digital Economy. Its entry into application means that a much greater number of projects will be eligible," said Guillaume de Fondaumière, president of Syndicat National du Jeu Vidéo.
These moves come after news in 2013 that the country wanted to bolster its tax breaks; it gained EU approval to do so late last year.
De Fondaumière is also co-CEO of Heavy Rain deveoper Quantic Dream and has long been interested in ratings issues in the industry, as he discussed at length with Gamasutra in 2011.
You May Also Like
