Australian, UK Developers Unite To Lobby For Tax Breaks

Officials from the GDAA (Game Developers’ Association of Australia) and UK based trade association Tiga (The Independent Game Developers Association) have announced that the two organizations will be working more closely together to encourage their respective governments to instigate tax breaks for the video games industry. GDAA and Tiga will share future research findings that highlight the benefits of tax breaks for games production, for both the games development industries in each country and their respective wider economies. The announcement comes only a day after UK based organization ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) also called for tax breaks to help the industry, highlighting the problems experienced with a brain drain of existing developers compared to countries such as France and Canada which already enjoy government tax breaks. “Australian and UK game developers can compete successfully against game developers across the globe when market conditions are fair. However, the scales are increasingly tipped against them when the governments of other countries, especially Canada, heavily subsidize their game developers”, said GDAA CEO Greg Bondar and Tiga CEO Dr Richard Wilson in a joint statement. “With 300+ companies involved in the video game industry in Canada, some 56% are now developing proprietary technology due to the funding initiatives of the Canadian government”, added Bondar.