A Relief To UK Games?

As revealed one year ago in the UK Government’s Budget, the UK gaming industry will be the subject of a tax relief. This proposal, although being implemented later than what was previously planned, will begin in April 2013 and allow developers to apply for 25 per cent alleviation in tax. Games companies are required to meet a set criteria and quota to be eligible, which begs the question: what makes a game “British”?

Let us first look at the criteria that have been set, as fully-outlined by Develop. In order to qualify, game developers must achieve 16 points (from the 31 points available) in a multitude of categories, listed below:

• Up to 4 points available for the location of development.
• Up to 4 points available for lead characters that depict a British or another EEA (European Economic Area) state culture.
• Up to 4 points available for the depiction of a British or another EEA state story.
• Up to 4 points available for dialogue originally recorded in the English language.
• Up to 4 points available for the contribution to the development and promotion of British culture.
• Up to 3 points available for location of specific areas of work, including conceptualisation, programming and audio production.
• Up to 8 points available for having a “qualifying person” involved in the production of the game.

On paper, this seems generally acceptable. There are many parallels with the CulturalTest set by the British Film Institute, which allows for similar support to UK-qualified films. However, I still believe this to be a flawed system, and I’ll use two previous games as examples to prove this point.

The first game is London-based Playstation 2 title The Getaway, which depicts London’s gangland and the dark landscape of UK culture. The development of this game was heavily – if not completely – undertaken within Britain. Under this criterion, the title would most likely see a tax relief, clarifying the government’s stance on the game being “culturally British”. As a UK citizen, I am fully aware of gang culture in the UK, but is this something the government would want to have associated with and promote on an international level?

The second game follows a similar pattern to The Getaway, and takes the form of the media-renowned Manhunt 2, released in 2008. Manhunt 2 went through a string of court cases just to be published worldwide, effectively being classified as “adult-only content” at first. But the game was developed in the UK (after Rockstar Vienna closed) and featured British contributions, it features English-speaking characters (one of which is British), and had enough “qualifying” personnel to reach the magic number of 16. Is this a game that the government would want to classify as “culturally British”? Especially with the recent “effects of violence in video games” debate, I don’t believe this to be a game the suits of Westminster would choose to have under the Union Jack catalogue, regardless of whether it was made in Britain. At the end of the day, consumers are generally more interested in the content, rather than the development.

The point of using past games as examples is to show what games could potentially be classified as of British culture, as these genres are popular amongst a large audience. These guidelines are too loose, in my opinion, and a whole range of games could be conceived as “culturally British” based on the location of development rather than the content. As much as these games can be argued to be of British culture, I don’t believe it is the right kind of culture that should be promoted. If the government were more interested in promoting the culture of Britain, stricter guidelines will have been imposed to focus on the content of the game, rather than where it was developed. As much as the location of development and people involved are relevant to the culture of Britain, it’s the content that promotes culture to the consumers, and there are not enough details and restrictions in these guidelines.

(Footnote: There has been a general split of opinion from the folks here at Amber Glass Broadcast, and we want to know what your opinion is!)

Andrew Reid

Managing Director