Don Foster and Ed Vaizey both ‘dejected’ after months of pre-election promises
Two MPs most sympathetic with the needs of the game industry are said had been deflated by Treasury plans to scrap game development tax breaks.
And Develop has been told from an involved political source that Chancellor George Osborne is being sent a letter by the coalition party members to reconsider.
Conservative MP Ed Vaizey – now a culture minister – and Liberal Democrat Don Foster have both written to the Treasury, Develop is told, asking the department to reassess its position.
Today the Treasury told Develop that backing one industry over any other would not have been the fairest way to protect British business.
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The fact is, it isnt a matter of fair (not all the policies in the ConDems policies are fair for all)
And rather that provide severe cuts for all, lets help promote the best of british and support export centric industries that affet and promote a whole strata of the educated and public.
Interestingly enough the UK Games & Entertainment sector helps involve a wide swath of highly educated maths & science graduates, creative industries (arts, animation, audio, industrial design, contemporary, fine arts) and applied creative industries (large swathe of stellar post production facilities/talent - that provides great crossover for films, animation and games) and affiliated sectors of advertising, management, business development and IP development.
Overall, the cross sector involvement and investment is massive compared to a traditional field eg. medicine, law, engineering.
I'm glad you took the positive approach, I wouldn't have!
It's one of things that makes the situation so frustrating, with some support and investment, the British games industry could be truly great, providing a lot of good jobs, and helping to fill the export hole that is supposed to balance the budget.
It's not going to collapse without support, but it's not going to blossom either, and that is a missed opportunity to jump on board an exciting expanding industry, which appeals to both consumers, and employees. The amount of kids that want to be developers is amazing, but what do we tell them? don't do it...be a banker?!
It's also about how you approach recession, spending your way out of it, or saving your way out of it. They have chosen to tighten their belts, rather than take advantage of the fact that the competition may be reduced, and those that survive will have an advantage when things pick up. By the time it picks up, places like Canada and Korea will be miles ahead of us, unless the stock markets decide to play with them.
As you said, it's not just the industry itself, it has many spin offs, not least of which would be the Tomb Raider franchise...and who'd have thought that being an artist would end up paying the rent?! :P
Perhaps the government is happier exporting WMD (planes, guns, ships, etc) than games, after all, it's better for the UK's image?!
