Developers of video games that are deemed "culturally British" can claim tax relief on some of the production costs in the United Kingdom thanks to a new tax relief scheme that officially went into effect in the region yesterday.

Under the newly implemented plan, game developers and publishers can claim a tax credit of up to 25 percent on qualifying production costs associated with producing games that are certified by the BFI as culturally British.

InFamous developer Sucker Punch has laid off an undetermined number of employees, according to what Sony Computer Entertainment America (the parent company of the studio), has told IGN UK.

SCEA would not give an exact number, but did confirm that there has been a "reduction in workforce." The company also did not disclose the reasoning behind the layoffs.

Minecraft creator and Mojang co-founder Markus "Notch" Persson has softened his stance on Facebook buying Oculus. In a tweet Friday Persson said that he's no longer angry that Facebook acquired the virtual reality hardware company. On Monday Oculus' Chief Technical Officer John Carmack responded to Persson's tweet offering to help port MineCraft to the Rift. Where the conversation went from there is unknown.

A new blog post from Puppy Games co-founder Caspian Prince (makers of such PC titles as Titan Attacks, Droid Assault, Ultratron, and Titan Attacks) takes aim at customers and their worth to the indie studio in this day and age.

Riot Games' head of EU eSports Jason Yeh tells Polygon that it is not interested in matching the massive prize pool for its League of Legends pro-gaming competitions that Valve offered with Dota 2's The International.

Nintendo has responded to a petition calling on the company to add Robin Williams as a character in the next Legend of Zelda game. Williams and his daughter Zelda were big fans of the game series and have in the past appeared in Nintendo commercials supporting the franchise and other Nintendo games. Williams was an avid gamer and a big fan of Nintendo's series. His daughter is named after the world famous princess from the game as well.

VentureBeat today announced its "big speakers" for its annual games industry focused GamesBeat event. GamesBeat 2014 takes place Sept. 15 and Sept. 16 (at the Parc 55 Wyndham Hotel) in San Francisco.

Game Music Connect organizers today announced that its 2014 international video game music conference, which returns to London's Southbank Centre on September 24, will be supported by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

Game Music Connect is for aspiring and professional composers of all backgrounds and those interested in learning about the art and craft of creating video game soundtracks.

Sometimes the best way to convey the abhorrent behavior of some industries is to make fun of it in an overblown way. That's the goal of Fat Chicken, a game that puts all the evils of factory farming in the game as important gameplay elements.

Game researcher Annakaisa Kultima had a blunt answer at the Game Developers Conference Europe's #1ReasonToBe panel today about why she's in the video games industry:

"I have a fucking right to be here," she said to attendees (as detailed by Polygon).

Got Light developer Ben Reynolds explains how his game accidently became a freebie on the Apple App Store. The iOS puzzle game was recently released in the store but a minor programming error - one small line of code - turned his $1.99 game into a $0.00 game.

This one's for the old-timers among you: A new company has launched made up of former Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) employees called Tactical Simulations Interactive (TSI). The company features the talents of former SSI veterans Paul Murray and David Shelley, and David Klein. In its early days SSI was known as one of the best war game publishers in the world, but by the late eighties it managed to secure the rights to make Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games.

The popularity of games set in post apocalyptic worlds is a reflection of a real world full of troubles according to God of War II scribe Marianne Krawczyk. Speaking to Gamasutra recently, Krawczyk said wars, conflicts, climate change, and other trials and tribulations facing the citizens of the world are influencing writers and gamers.

Social and mobile game maker Zynga posted a $63 million net loss for the second quarter of FY 2014. The company reported non-GAAP quarterly revenues of $153 million, with non-GAAP profits of $3 million - a bit better than the $6 million loss for the same period a year ago. Bookings, or virtual item sales, were $175 million, down 7 percent from the same period a year ago.

Zynga also reduced its full-year guidance on bookings to be between $695 million and $725 million, down from an earlier guidance between $770 million to $810 million.

In a lengthy interview with Eurogamer, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli goes over all of the recent controversies surrounding the company including its finical stability, not paying employees on time, and selling off the Homefront IP to Koch Media.

A Washington woman has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Seattle against Big Fish Games. The lawsuit alleges that the causal game publisher is tricking customers into signing up for monthly payments on game subscriptions. Carolyn Carnahan, who has filed on behalf of herself and other possible class members, is accusing the publisher of enrolling her and other customers in a membership program without notifying the consumer in an obvious way first.

SNK Playmore has filed a criminal copyright infringement complaint against Square Enix.

Yacht Club Games, the makers of the ultra popular Shovel Knight, have revealed some interesting details about crowdfunding the game, the rough patch of living they had to endure while making the game, and the most recent sales figures. First the sales numbers: Shovel Knight has sold 180,000 copies in its first month, with around 15,000 going to Kickstarter backers and the press. The company expected to sell a total of 150,000 units. The Wii U version of the game is not available outside the U.S. yet either.

Epic Games announced today that it is launching Epic UK after purchasing long-time collaborator Pitbull Studio. Pitbull will be rebranded as Epic Games UK, and will help drive Unreal Engine 4 development in Europe.

Pitbull collaborated with Epic on the development of Unreal Engine, and did work on Gears of War: Judgment and Silent Hill: Downpour. Epic Games UK will help drive Unreal Engine 4 development in Europe, according to Epic.

The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television’s Professional Programs unveiled a new academic course dedicated to the study of video game development. The course, "Interactivity: A Course in Video Game Design and Development," will be taught by video game scribe Marianne Krawczyk (best known for her work on the God of War and Prince of Persia series) and Sony Computer Entertainment’s Senior Manager of Internal Production, Whitney Wade.

If you missed last week's live broadcast of Super Podcast Action Committee (Episode 108), you can watch the video replay on YouTube,  download it below (in audio format), or find it on iTunes. In episode 108 hosts Andrew Eisen and E.

Gearbox Software has asked the Northern District of California Court to dismiss four claims against the developer in the class-action lawsuit related to Aliens: Colonial Marines. Lawyers for the developer say that it should have never been named in the lawsuit in the first place, because the lawsuit makes allegations about marketing and promotional activities that it did not have anything to do with - all that was handled by publisher Sega, the company asserts in its filing.

Game Developers Conference 2015 organizers UBM Tech Game Network announce that it is now accepting submissions to present lectures, roundtables, panels, posters and tutorials through until Thursday, August 28th for next year's event. GDC 2015 takes place March 2-6 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.

Developer Other Ocean and trade group the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) have launched a mobile title today called "Save The Game" at the Crime Museum in Washington D.C.

The game focuses on the thorny issue of software piracy and the ways in which the ESA and game developers claim it damages "the livelihoods of independent software developers." After its run at the Crime Museum, the game will be made freely available to the public on Windows RT, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android devices.

This afternoon Crytek USA announced that it had closed its Texas-based development studio and moved the development of the free-to-play co-op shooter the studio was working on - Hunt: Horrors of the Guilded Age - to its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. Earlier in the day it was revealed that the company sold the Homefront franchise to Koch Media and had shut down its UK studio.

Koch Media and its publishing label Deep Silver announced that they have acquired the Homefront brand and all related assets from Crytek. The deal encompasses all things Homefront-related including the latest game in the series that was being developed by Crytek UK - Homefront: The Revolution. The game will continue to be developed in the newly formed Nottingham-based Deep Silver Dambuster Studios.

Former Silicon Knights director and Precursor Games co-founder Kenneth McCulloch has been sentenced to "time served" by the Ontario Court of Justice on a 2013 charge for "making child pornography available," according to this Polygon report - citing a report from the Welland Tribune.

NIS America and GaymerX have amicably settled their differences, after a tumultuous day of bad press that reflected poorly on all parties involved. Sadly most of the bad press stemmed from a simple miscommunication between GaymerX co-founder Matt Conn and two principles from NIS America's PR & Marketing department. The dispute, over a $3,000 sponsorship deal at the recent GaymerX 2 LGBTQ event in San Francisco, has been resolved and the parties involved have apologized to each other for the miscommunication.

Atelier developer Gust Co. will be absorbed into its parent company, Koei Tecmo, and renamed "Gust Nagano Development Group." The developer behind the popular JRPG series was acquired in December of 2011, but was allowed to operate as a separate entity under the auspices of Koei Tecmo.

But now Koei Tecmo says that "efficiency in game development and technology" are the main reasons for bringing the studio into its system.

Continuing its series of reports on popular YouTube personalities taking money to promote games, Gamasutra offers details of a recent survey that shows how developers feel about the whole issue. In its survey of developers Gamasutra asked a handful of questions about paying for coverage, if they would consider paying for coverage in the future, and if any traditional media outlets had ever asked them for money.