MediaCityUK, a sprawling 200-acre development in Greater Manchester, England may be the future home of a videogame development center.

As part of the Digital Britain report, the North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) commissioned a feasibility study into such a move, proposing “a model of support which combines usability testing, applied research, internship training and public interface components in a single facility to be based at Media City” reports Crain’s Manchester Business.

While the project could begin as early as next summer, there appears to be some opposition to the project, including the “the political furore that such a move could cause in Liverpool,” home to a good number of game developers already.

Eric Hobson, CEO of developer Connect2media Ltd, expressed his feeling about the proposed project:

Having a building, whether it's in Manchester or Liverpool, isn't going to make a damn bit of difference in getting a company to stay in the UK rather than relocate abroad. What would make a difference is getting graduates through the door so they can get real experience of the industry and the industry can get experience of the graduates.

Matmi Managing Director Jeff Coghlan, whose firm makes viral games, agreed with Hobson, “The problem with our business isn't the buildings, it's with things like recruiting graduates, the educational standards and quality of graduates and tax.”

The BBC is scheduled to move five departments to MediaCityUK in 2011.

In order to drive the development and implementation of “superfast broadband” throughout the country, England is set to introduce a tax on every phone line in the country.

According to the Daily Mail, Stephen Timms, Minister for Digital Britain, is attempting to initiate the levy ahead of the next elections. Digital Britain is the British government’s “strategic vision for ensuring that the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy.”

The tax calls for a 50p per-month, or £6-per-year (approximately $9.82 a year U.S.), additional charge on all phone lines. It’s estimated that the tariff could raise between £150 million and £175 million  (approximately $245 million to $286 million U.S.) a year.

The British government defines “superfast broadband” as the transfer of over 40 megabits per second.

Relations between the video game industry and the British government continue on the upswing.

In the latest indication of cooperation between the Gordon Brown government and the game biz, Develop reports that U.K. Chancellor Alistair Darling (left) took a meeting in Westminster last week with Blitz Games CEO Philip Oliver.

Darling is responsible for all British economic policy, while Blitz's credits include Fuzion Frenzy. From Develop:

According to a statement, it was Darling who requested to meet with Oliver to discuss the state of the industry and examine policies going forward.



Oliver had presented a list of arguments, arranged in part by the UK games industry body Tiga. He said it was “hugely encouraging” to see the Chancellor consult the games industry on the issues of skills and education...

The Blitz Games chief executive argued that the government should cut tuition fees for undergraduates taking mathematics and computer science degrees.

..

In April, Darling was criticized by Tiga head Richard Wilson for failing to include game developer incentives in the U.K. budget.

The political legitimacy of video games is overdue.

So says Lord David Puttnam, producer of hit movies such as Chariots of Fire and The Killing Fields. Puttnam, long an advocate of technology and the arts, also serves as a member of the recently-formed All Party Parliamentary Group on the Computer and Video Games Industry.

Puttnam made the comment during a lengthy interview with British newspaper The Guardian's Games Blog:

My own belief is that the [video game] sector should get significantly more [government] support, particularly at the entry and training level...

I'm also trying to persuade people within the interactive entertainment industry that the role they are playing, and the role that the games they develop are playing, could be far more significant in British cultural life...

What I hope we'll achieve with this new committee is the overdue political legitimacy of the games industry; to get a level of informed parliamentary understanding of interactive games... Most parliamentarians don't have a clue as regards the challenges or the opportunities the games industry faces. If for example, they had a full understanding of the levels of support the Canadians offer their industry they would, I'm sure, fall off their chairs!

As GamePolitics reported earlier this year, Puttnam called upon game makers to help spread the word about climate change.

France and England both mandate that video game projects be culturally relevant in order to qualify for financial incentives. But the head of the European Game Developers Federation told gamesindustry.biz that such requirements make little sense either culturally or as a matter of economic policy.

Guillaume de Fondaumiere (left), who is also an exec with Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream, spoke to gi.biz at the recent GameHorizon conference:

The cultural test is a problem... When you look at [European Union] rules, you have to ask: 'Actually, what is culture?' It's a national decision, so it's kind of weird that we, as the videogame industry, have to work with standards that other cultural areas don't have to follow.

To me, all games are cultural. Videogames aren't just a form of entertainment, but a true form of cultural expression, and I think that in twenty years' time this will be a given. No one will dispute that any more...

We know that tax breaks are extremely effective in stimulating an industry, and I think again that Montreal and Quebec have shown us the way...

So I think it's high time for governments, and the EU, to understand that money given in the form of tax breaks to the industry is not money thrown away. It's an investment with a very high return, so it's time that we had those breaks.

The release of today's Digital Britain report  is a milestone, and not just because of its video game-related news.

The BBC has a rundown of other key policy items in the document prepared by Lord Stephen Carter (left). They include:

• three year plan to boost digital participation
• universal access to broadband by 2012
• fund to invest in next generation broadband
• digital radio upgrade by 2015
• liberalisation of 3G spectrum
• legal and regulatory attack on digital piracy

Some of these will impact gamers as well as the general public, especially universal broadband (which the Entertainment Consumers Association has been lobbying for here in the U.S.).

As regards piracy, the British Government appears committed to taking a hard line, as the BBC reports:

The Government believes piracy of intellectual property for profit is theft and will be pursued as such through the criminal law.

Ofcom is to get powers that will make ISPs inform persistent pirates of the illegality of their actions. It will also allow these people to be identified and pursued if that action does not stop them. ISPs will also be encouraged to use bandwidth reduction and protocol blocking to stymie persistent offenders.

However, despite the changes, The Telegraph reports that the music and movie industries don't believe that the Government is being firm enough against pirates. The newspaper quotes Geoff Taylor, head of the British Recorded Music Industry:

Evidence shows that the Government’s ‘write and then sue’ approach won't work. And Government appears to be anticipating its failure by lining up backstop powers for Ofcom to introduce technical measures later. This digital dithering puts thousands of jobs at risk in a creative sector that the government recognises as the driver of the digital economy.

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: The Entertainment Consumers Association is the parent company of GamePolitics.