Tiga lobbies Scottish Parliament for tax breaks
Richard Wilson warns the region's MPs of "uneven playing field" ahead of government debate
Tiga, the UK developers' trade association, has asked the Scottish Parliament to support a tax break for game development.
CEO Richard Wilson made the request in advance of the Scottish Parliament's debate on the region's games industry.
"The game development sector is one of the pearls of the Scottish economy," commented Wilson. "Scotland has some excellent games developers, including Realtime Worlds, Denki, Dynamo Games and Tag Games in Dundee, Firebrand Games in Glasgow and Rockstar North and Outerlight in Edinburgh."
"The Scottish games industry also provides a model of industry-academia collaboration. Abertay University at Dundee provides some of the finest higher education games courses in the world and has excellent links with games development businesses."
He continued: "Yet Scottish game developers are competing on an uneven playing field. Our principal competitors in Australia, Canada, China, France, South Korea, Singapore and the USA all receive national or regional/state tax breaks for games production."
"A tax break for game production would enable the UK games development sector to remain one of the top five countries for games development in the world. It would also safeguard the games industry's substantial contribution to the economy."
"Videogame development is an industry of the future," Wilson said, concluding: "Now is the time for the Scottish Parliament to send a powerful message to the Chancellor ahead of the Budget on April 22nd: claim this future industry for the UK by investing in a tax break for games development."