Review: Dragon Ball Z – Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3)

Badger look-alike and Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling (yes, that really is his name) is expected to deny games industry cries for tax breaks in the pre-budget report (being delivered in about 40 mins as of time of writing), the Guardian reports. Hit the jump for more!

The news will be a major blow to UK developers, and, as the Guardian observes, the film industry, which actually makes less than the games industry is being subsidised by the government. This is a problem for the UK games industry, with many studios losing employees to devs in countries with an environment more conducive to games development, like Canada and South Korea.

In his Digital Britain report earlier this year, Lord Carter reccomended a tax break for the games industry. Richard Wilson, head of Tiga, the trade organisation representing the UK games industry, said the decision was “a colossal mistake and a failure of imagination on behalf of the government”.

He went on, “We have provided concrete, substantive and compelling evidence to support the case for a games tax relief, which our research shows would more than pay for itself,” he said. “We are convinced that the games industry has the potential to be one of the UK’s leading digital industries as we emerge from the recession, so we will redouble our efforts to convince government and policymakers of the need to back our sector

Tiga has estimated that the tax breaks would cost around £192 million ($312 million or so), which is about three days worth of interest payment on the UK’s national debt, and would mean encourage £450 million of investment by the industry, thereby creating jobs. Britain had the third largest industry (behind Japan and the USA) for about 30 years, but has fallen to around fourth of fifth.
British game developers will now be hoping that a change of administration might produce an improvement in their fortunes. Shadow culture minister Ed Vaizey has already stated that he is “actively considering” a tax break for the industry.