£50million pound tax relief for video games
industry.
Something for game artists to look forward in a
budget for once, considering that I'm on a path to hopefully gain a
job in the games industry I couldn't be more thrilled. For too many
years talented artists, programmers and developers have been forced from the UK
for better job prospects abroad and to be honest I felt
like is should be one of them. Thank god that
the government has finally realised just how profitable the games
industry is and it's only going to get better. Games are the staple diet of
interactive media for all first world countries and its only going to gain more
support and popularity.
This demographic shows
the European market for around 2008 for interactive media sales and
clearly shows that the UK is quite happy to continue to
spend, statistically, more money on video games than any other
country barring the USA.
Reading up on how much the games industry makes is
astronomical, with such a deep seated recession in the works it was only
inevitable that a tax break is in order. The worldwide revenue for games
was $48.9 in 2011 and predicted $68 billion in 2012 comparing this to
other entertainment industries;
·
Music Industry- $10.4 billion (US 2008)
and $30 to $40 billion globally.
·
Movie Industry- $9.5 billion (US 2008)
and $27 billion globally.
·
Book Industry- $35.69 billion (US 2007)
and roughly $68 billion globally (2002) (Euromonitor Intl)
·
DVD Industry- £23 billion (US 2008)
(buying $16billion, renting $7billion)
Why try to hinder something that was obviously successful
even 10 or 20 years ago, many other countries have thrived from allowing tax
incentives for developers and have seen successful realises of some of the world's
best franchises. We seem to be only following suit with what other countries
had done 10 years ago. The UK is supposed to be the cultural and entertainment
capital of the world. Let's evolve as a new hub for games development and
leading industry professionals. We have the resources at our deposal to be
world leaders in yet another field and its clearly not going to be an
economical mistake by any means. Generations have grown up with games and will
continue to use them as a new era of fans develop through subsequent
generations. This will only continue to increase the global market. By 2015,
analysts predict the global video games industry will reach $91 billion.
Drawing in foreign investment and allow new companies to flourish will benefit
our economy and the games industry as a whole. As well as allowing long
standing companies to survive bad market conditions and save and secure
thousands of jobs. Including my future jobs prospects, this can only be a good
thing financially, with more sales my future income will increase and I couldn't
be happier.
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