Only 10% of UK videogame developers view piracy as a threat to their business survival reports a new survey from trade industry group TIGA.

While the low percentage indicates that piracy probably won’t drive any developers out of business, game makers are still concerned about having their work stolen, with 90% of those surveyed seeing piracy as a “constant or increasing problem” for their business going forward.

When queried on whether they would do business differently as a result of piracy, 50% responded “yes,” 30% responded “no” and 20% answered “don’t know.” Of the 50% who responded “yes” to the previous question, 75% indicated that digital distribution, subscription based or ad-supported free games would be their remedy against piracy.

The developers were also asked if Digital Rights Management (DRM) was “an irrelevance, a solution or a problem.” 50% responded that DRM is “an irrelevance,” 30% called it “the solution” and 20% labeled it “the problem.”

Developers were split 50/50 on the issue of whether or not people caught pirating should have their Internet connection throttled and/or cut off.

A lack of fiscal autonomy could affect Scotland’s bid to stop Ireland from poaching game development companies.

While Sir Gerry Robinson previously proposed that Ireland try to lure Scottish developers with a five-year tax holiday, Michael Russell, Scottish Minister for Culture, External Affairs and Constitution, lamented to Inc Gamers that Scottish Parliament does not have the ability to alter its own tax structure, making it difficult to entice companies to stay. Russell hopes to secure full fiscal powers from the UK in order to “respond to the needs of our industry."

Despite the competition, Russell said Scottish developers were opting to stay put:

I am pleased that many companies that are based here are choosing to stay here, despite the financial incentives that might be on offer elsewhere.  We are committed to supporting them and creating the infrastructure to enable to them to thrive.

TIGA, the UK trade association for game developers, continues to lobby for tax breaks throughout the region.

TIGA, a UK trade association that represents game developers and associated businesses, has called for a national Games Tax Relief to spur growth and aid current interactive developers.

Labeling the current system of assistance as “incoherent and insufficient,” TIGA seeks a single, region-wide policy that would eliminate the current “post code lottery.” TIGA’s comments came following a report on actual funding from nine English Regional Development Agencies (RDA) disclosed a large gap in assistance provided based on region.

TIGA’s CEO, Richard Wilson explained:

... while many other countries provide generous tax relief for games production there is no similar tax benefit for game developers in England. More funding should be made accessible through national programmes that developers, irrespective of their geographical location, can benefit from.

TIGA sees Games Tax Relief assisting 60-80 titles per year and creating more than 1,400 jobs over five years.

Government tax breaks would create 1,400 new jobs for the UK video game industry within five years, says game developers group TIGA.

The organization, which has been fighting hard for government incentives in recent times, made its claim in a report sent to the UK's Department of Culture, Media and Sport late last week.

The document, titled Investing in the Future, lamented the loss of skilled British developers to nations in which government incentives for video game studios already exist:

Games would need to pass a cultural test, scoring against criteria of European heritage and game locations, languages, innovation, narrative, and location of development and key development staff. 44% of UK made games profiled in an exercise for the report passed...

 

With 60-80 titles benefitting per year, the tax measure would assist UK game developers without distorting the larger European game development market...

 

The Games Tax Relief is expected over 5 years to create 1,400 new jobs in the studio sector, increasing investment by games studios by 146m, direct and indirect annual tax revenues by 133m and GDP contribution by 323m. By year 5, for every 100 of investment by government in the Games Tax Relief, the industry will invest 176.

In a forward to the TIGA report, Lord Puttnam (left), Vice-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Computer and Video Games Industry, gave his strong support to the notion of a tax break:

For far too long the UK video games industry has been effectively taken for granted. To ensure the continuing success of this pre-eminently creative sector, I can only urge the Government to support TIGAs case for the introduction of a form of Games Tax Relief, as set out in this report.

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.

Video game industry types in the U.K. are lamenting the loss of talented developers to competing nations, reports the Guardian.

Complaints about a lack of government subsidies to U.K. game firms has been increasingly heard in recent years. The newspaper notes that video games, which add more than a billion pounds to the nation's GDP, receive no support while film production, which contributes less, is susidized.

Canada and France, both of which support their game industries, are taking business - and talent - away from U.K. firms. Some 30,000 British expatriot game biz workers live in British Columbia alone. EA developer Matthew Boulton is among them:

Games are a lot more high profile here; it's recognised as an important industry. Maybe that's true in the UK as well, but you never get that sense. You never hear politicians mention it – but here, it's one of the things that people know is strong and that you need to support.

Conservative MP Edward Vaizey, a strong supporter of the U.K. game industry, told the Guardian:

The only time [the game biz] gets mentioned in parliament is when Keith Vaz [chairman of the home affairs committee] is blaming it for causing some recent outrage. We were the second largest in the world, but we are slipping.

Consumers would be guaranteed that their games would work for two years under a proposal being considered by the European Union Commission.

The BBC reports that Commissioners Viviane Reding and Meglena Kuneva want to expand current consumer protection regulations to include licensed software. Such a move would encompass games as well as virtually every other type of software. Of the proposal, an EU spokeswoman said:

The current status quo, where licensed products are exempt from EU law, is unsatisfactory... On the one hand there is the risk of abuse [by consumers], but on the other it's not a good enough reason to say basic consumer protection should not apply.

While anyone who has struggled to get a PC game to run will appreciate the intent of the proposal, the video game industry has not reacted with enthusiasm. Is anyone surprised? Dr. Richard Wilson, who heads game developers' lobbying group Tiga, told the BBC that the new regulations could stifle innovation:

Consumers need good quality products - that is only reasonable - but if the legislation is too heavy-handed it could make publishers and developers very cautious... Games takes years to develop and software teams often have to predict what new technology will be in place when the game is actually finished.

If there is an onus on developers to have software that is 'near perfect' then it could stifle new ideas as people could end up just playing it safe.

Meanwhile, Francisco Mingorance of the Business Software Alliance had the best line of the day (even if he is spinning the issue of behalf of Microsoft, Apple and other big corporations):

Digital content is not a tangible good and should not be subject to the same liability rules as toasters.

GP: We still have fond memories of those flying toasters from the After Dark screen saver.

ESA, EMA, ESRB, IGDA, ELSPA, Tiga: On both sides of the Atlantic the alphabet soup is bubbling when it comes to video game industry trade groups.

But one member of Parliament thinks that the British video game industry would be better served with a single organization whose name people could remember.

Conservative MP Edward Vaizey (left), who has been a vocal supporter of the game biz, told IncGamers:

[ELSPA and Tiga should] merge and have a name everyone can understand. Two trade bodies for one industry, why?

 

The videogame industry has to up its game and tell people what they're about. There are all these great stories about videogames which never get into the press. [The two trade bodies - ELSPA and Tiga] [s]hould get together and talk to each other, and get the good press stories out there...

Vaizey also criticized the Labour Government's recent Change4Life campaign which suggested that playing video games would lead to an early death. The campaign was later revised.

GP: Vaizey may be a bit off the mark here. ELSPA represents game publishers, while Tiga represents game developers. While there are areas of mutual concern, the interests of the two groups are not always in synch.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling (left) has put forth a budget for the U.K. but game developers are not happy about his plans.

Edge Online reports that Richard Wilson, head of developers' group Tiga, blasted Darling's proposal for failing to provide what Wilson views as adequate financial incentives for U.K. game creators:

This Budget conspicuously fails to back one of the principal creative industries of the future – games development. It is disappointing that while [Darling] plans to spend £671 billion over the coming financial year... he could not find the £150 million over five years to invest in the tax break for games production.

The Government has missed a trick. Video games are a growing sector and the UK games development sector is still world beating. The Government should have used today’s Budget to reinforce success and introduced a tax break for games production...

The Labour Government of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has given financial assistance to the video game industry, but it doesn't know how much, according to gamesindustry.biz.

Conservative MP Philip Davies (left) addressed the question to the government's Department of Culture, Media and Sports earlier this week. Parliamentary under-secretary Barbara Follett provided the response:

The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost. We do not have the specific figures broken down by sector or year.

Richard Wilson, CEO of U.K. game developers group Tiga, criticized the government's confusion:

The government needs good quality information if it is to implement plans that benefit economic sectors. However, the government's admission today that it supports the videogames sector but doesn't record the amount of financial support means that it cannot effectively measure its impact.

This is a great shame - the government needs to record and assess its financial assessments in order to make better policy in the future.

The Scottish Parliament heard from game developers yesterday as trade group Tiga lobbied for tax breaks.

As reported by the Aberdeen Press and Journal, Tiga head Richard Wilson complained that developers were working on an “uneven playing field” in comparison to their global competitors.

If we want the Scottish games industry in particular, and the UK games industry in general, to stay ahead of the pack, then we must introduce a tax break for games production similar to the EU-approved French tax credit.

Industry research indicates that if a 20% production tax credit was introduced, investment would increase by £220million over five years, generating a further 1,600 graduate jobs over the same period.

MSP Joe Fitzpatrick, who represents Dundee, where much of Scotland's game development community is based, backed Tiga's request:

Abolishing [Value-added Tax] for research and development would give Scottish [video game] firms the same benefits as those in France and keep us at the forefront of the industry.

 

I want to see Chancellor Alistair Darling take action in the upcoming budget.

Not everyone agreed, however. Some MSPs felt that sufficient incentives were already available to the video game industry.

UPDATE: Edge Online has debate highlights, or, for true political junkies, the full text of yesterday's debate.

The fallout over controversial ads linking video game playing with early death continues.

In the latest news, Tiga, the trade association which represents U.K. video game developers, has filed a complaint with Britain's Advertising Standards Authority, reports develop.

At issue are print ads placed by the British government's Change4Life campaign which show a young boy holding a game controller. The ad's text reads, "Risk an early death, just do nothing."

Of the ads, Tiga CEO Richard Wilson said:

This advert is absurd and insulting in equal measure. To imply that playing a video game leads to a premature rendezvous with the Grim Reaper is a non-sequitur of colossal proportions. Alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, obesity and involvement in violent crime are forms of behaviour that risk an early death...

This advert is offensive to the 30,000 people who work in the UK’s video games industry, particularly the 10,000 who work in games development. Game developers are typically intelligent, very qualified and creative individuals who work to produce high quality games for people’s entertainment. They are not in the business of driving people to an early grave...

A Conservative member of the British Parliament has accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour government of failing the UK's video game industry.

As reported by gamesindustry.biz, Ed Vaizey (left) said:

The Government's strategy for videogames has been shown to be nothing more than a sham. For months, whenever we have pressed the Government for action, they have used the excuse that the issue had been referred to the WTO. Now they no longer have this excuse.

As the games industry itself says, the Government now 'stands naked, bereft of a credible fiscal policy with which to support the sector.

 

The Government must act now to support an industry that is world-beating, job-creating and at the heart of our creative industries. After nine reviews of the creative industries, and eight more in the pipeline, the Government's dithering has now been exposed as causing real damage.

Vaizey's mention of the WTO refers to a trade complaint which the UK filed against Canada in March, 2008. As Gamers Daily News reports, that bid has failed.

Richard Wilson, head of British game developers' trade group Tiga, echoed Vaizey's criticism of the government's handling of the video game sector:

Last year the Government said that the UK via the European Union would take legal action against Canada if its support for its video games industry violated WTO rules. We now know that there are no legal grounds on which to lodge a complaint.

We cannot stop our competitors from benefiting from tax breaks but there is a simple solution: copy them. Just as Australia, Canada, China, France, Singapore, South Korea and some American states help their games industries to grow through extensive tax breaks, so the UK Government should back our games industry with a tax break for games production. If you can’t beat them, join them.

The Government stands naked before the games industry, bereft of a credible fiscal policy with which to support the sector...

Game developers in the U.K. are lining up behind a Conservative Party proposal that would lower taxes for small and medium-sized companies, according to gamesindustry.biz.

Richard Wilson, CEO of game dev trade group Tiga, called on Britain's ruling Labour Party to follow suit:

Measures to cut the tax burden on business in general and on games developers in particular, are welcome.

 

The Conservatives' proposals to enable [smaller companies] to delay their quarterly VAT payments for up to six months, to reduce employers' national insurance contributions... to cut corporation tax... and to reverse the planned increase in the small companies' rate... are encouraging.

On the other hand, Wilson criticized part of the Conservative plan which promotes apprenticeships:

The Conservative’s focus on boosting apprenticeships is too restrictive. The apprenticeship model is not ideal for every sector of the UK economy. Games developers need more graduates, particularly in computer science, mathematics and physics. Many games developers already employ highly qualified teams.