150°

UK's ability to support great developers is "questionable"

Following strong reviews of Newcastle-based Ubisoft Reflections' Driver: San Francisco, UK trade association TIGA has taken the opportunity to bang the "videogame industry tax relief" drum again.

dirigiblebill5350d ago

Sad but true. Without tax breaks, we're getting slammed by the US and Canada.

iamnsuperman5350d ago

That is what you get with a conservative government intent on cutting cost in all areas instead of specifically looking in areas that could be cut without grave ramification and a used liberal democrat party who are so not used to power they do not want to mess it up and support the conservatives in every way so you might as well call the conservatives. We have cuts in the gaming industry which is highly profitable, cuts in the armed forces when we are in the middle of a war. I personally can't believe I am going to say it but bring the inexperienced labour party in. The conservatives have no clue. If there not careful they could be out by the next general election but by that time it will be too late. The damage will all ready be done

dangert125350d ago

our gov don't actually care about what their doing their just here too make life hard and they was never voted into power they lost and joined together with another party to make the votes add up which is a con

iamnsuperman5350d ago (Edited 5350d ago )

@dangert12. That is a point. That is the problem with out FPTP system. Still better than the AV rubbish they tried to get in. The problem is we are at this stage where neither party is on top so a coalition was inevitable. It was not a con. The biggest con was the liberal democrats promises. Have the actually implemented any of them?

Our government needs to look at what is good in the country and making games is surprisingly one of those good things

edit at below: That is true and to be honest I haven't been a Labour voter but they are not leaving me much choice. I voted LD which was a mistake as they basically went against there own policies and are implementing the conservative's. I agree next election they will take a major hammering as their biggest vote comes from students. Cuts are necessary but cutting in the wrong place isn't. Look at the Armed Forces. They are in a war and the government thinks they can carry out the same duty even though some army officials have said we can't. We are already stretched as it is. The biggest problem for this area is the top heavy army. There are two many senior officers. Cuts have to be made but ruthless cuts is not the answer but tactical ones are.

kharma455350d ago

The cuts are necessary, have you seen the situation in the US where they've been too slow to do anything?

Yes lets bring in the Labour party again who got us into this debt crisis and whose former leader got us into this illegal war in the Middle East. At least the Conservatives have set a definite date to pull troops out.

They'll be fine at the next election, if anything they'll win a majority as it's the Liberal Democrats who'll take the hammering.

@dangert12

"oined together with another party to make the votes add up which is a con"

No, that's democracy and how most other European governments are made up.

Jdoki5350d ago (Edited 5350d ago )

@ iamsuperman "That is what you get with a conservative government"

I may be wrong, but I'm sure it was Labour, during their 13 years in power, who removed the last few breaks the game industry had. It wasn't until 2010 that Labour mentioned anything about new tax breaks - and at best that was a pyrrhic victory, as everyone knew by this time that Labour were sinking fast, and had created a budget designed to win votes, not help the economy.

Of course there should be breaks for many businesses who bring significant money in to the country. But to suggest that the Conservatives are doing anything different from what Labour would have had to do to drag us out of the crisis is rubbish.

The only difference is that the Tories are lead by someone who at least seems to understand that we are even in a crisis, rather than the Gordon Brown era, where he believed the current financial crisis would last ONLY 6 MONTHS. This from an ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer!!

MrDead5350d ago (Edited 5350d ago )

The problem with the Conservatives is they take money away from the wrong places. They do nothing to get money from the real culprits of the financial crisis, the banks, traders who put us here out of greed and the thousands of tax evaders that keep their finances abroad.

This is a good solution but the govenment are in the banks pockets so this probably will never happen, but it would bring in more money every year then all the cuts that the Conservatives have made so far. 0.05% tax on the financial sector (works out at 50p on £1000 of trade).
http://robinhoodtax.org/

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 5350d ago
NuclearDuke5350d ago

Why do companies in the video game industry need support from governments? They shouldn't get a dime more than the local indian restaurant on the corner of 3rd and 5th.

Kurt Russell5350d ago

It costs more to start up such business than your local take away.

NuclearDuke5350d ago

You are also, with todays handling of digital distribution much more likely to succeed on a bigger scale. I don't see why companies are entitled to support from the get go, atleast tax monies shouldn't be used for this.

Kurt Russell5350d ago

But the tax breaks would give fledgling companies a chance to start up and get off the ground. Tax would still be brought in from employees pays. I think companies should have more support, especially in todays climate.

iamnsuperman5350d ago (Edited 5350d ago )

Its incentives not really support. If a highly skilled workforce can be employed it is great. Companies want to maximise profits. So moving to an area with tax breaks is better for them. Not really support its just to get them to set up a business in the country so the local population is employed which has a knock on effect because the people employed have more money to spend on services and products increasing the local economy.

Jdoki5350d ago

@NuclearDuke

It works kinda like this...

A tax break allows businesses to employ more talent. Talent that may go elsewhere (other countries for example) if they feel they are getting a raw deal.

Allowing companies to create more jobs means more tax ultimately comes in to the economy.

For example - lets Say UK Developer A employs 10 people and makes an average game that sells 100,000 units

Now, lets say tax breaks for that company allows them to employ 25 people, and they make a AAA game that sells 1,000,000 units.

Any money 'lost' from the tax breaks the company is given, is easily recouped by the additional money made off of VAT from units sold in UK, tax from the additional 15 employees, and can have a knock on effect, such as more disks need pressing, so more materials need to be bought, etc etc.

So ultimately, a small tax concession in one area can lead to large increases in other areas.

NuclearDuke5350d ago

The idea is justified and I understand it. I just see no evidence that the "talent" that would move to other countries is actually gonna move.

Jdoki5350d ago (Edited 5350d ago )

I don't have figures, but it certainly seems like there are less developers in the UK now than in previous years.

Maybe most / some / all of the people made unemployed stayed in the UK and found other jobs in the industry. Or maybe some went overseas, and maybe others left the industry entirely.

It should be kept in mind that tax breaks can take many forms. For example, developers could be given an incentive to set up a graduate scheme. This has the knock on effect of encouraging more people in to a particular field of education and ultimately in to a particular industry.

No one running a business is getting it easy right now, especially small companies. But when you look at the potential for money being brought in to this country, the video game industry is high up there - so seems sensible to me to be given some breaks.

You only need to look at the increase in Canadian developers and the growth of Ubisoft to see that countries that give decent tax breaks thrive. And that's good for the wider economy.

Reefskye5350d ago

The Conservatives said they would sort out tax breaks for game developers before they got in to power didn't take them long to scrap it after they got in. Labour, Conservatives, Lib dems... No difference they just tell u lies to get in to power, labour didn't get us in to debt either capitalism did. that's how Capitalism works!

Governments say everything with be cool after this debt crisis n preach that policies are in place to stop happening again.. but it ALWAYS happens again. Just look how many time it has happened since the start of the 20th century.

Jdoki5350d ago

Yup. All a nation can do is try and ensure the impact of the cyclical boom and bust is as minimal as possible.

Unfortunately for the UK it appears Labour were deluding themselves. Brown said on a number of occasions that during his time as the Chancellor he had ensured the days of boom and bust were gone. I'm not saying he should have foreseen what the banks were doing, but he was wrong, and Labour were just as guilty as the previous Conservative government for widening the poverty gap between rich and poor.

50°

How Driver: San Francisco took the series in a daring new direction

Game Designer Andrew Willans looks back at Driver: San Francisco’s legacy.

LucasRuinedChildhood294d ago (Edited 294d ago )

Now we get The Crew games instead 🙄

Would love and much prefer a sequel to this.

40°

Ubisoft Confirms Work On New Projects For Driver Franchise

Ubisoft seems to have teased a new Driver game, with the company's CEO pointing to various projects being in development.

Read Full Story >>
tech4gamers.com
scorpio_2049651d ago

I know Driv3r was hated but I liked it. I’d love to see more games like that.

350°

Ubisoft Is Shutting Down Servers For Older Titles And Blocking Access To DLC Content You Paid For

Immersed Gamer writes: "Ubisoft came out with the announcement that some of their classic titles are shutting down their servers. While this is not entirely surprising, the next bit is quite shocking. As Ubisoft states in regard to many of said classic games, “additionally, the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable”.

The wording is a little vague, so the actual paid DLC could be safe. But it doesn’t change the fact that multiplayer modes of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Rayman Legends, and Driver San Francisco will surely be missed. Especially since no alternative exists in many of those cases. This happens to unveil right next to our story where I essentially beg Atlus to port SMT to modern consoles alongside Persona.

Seems like videogame preservation is on the down-low…"

Read Full Story >>
immersedgamer.com
MadLad1396d ago

This just in.
Ubisoft woke up and pulled an Ubisoft.

Mazgamer1396d ago

Reports say that they might continue to do an Ubisoft in the near future. Dreadful.

VenomUK1396d ago

Why would DLC stop working, because it requires a server for authentication?

Publishers need to find technical and legal solutions so that any digital product a user owns always works.

Mazgamer1396d ago

@VenomUK From what I remember replaying the Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood, there were plenty of mission DLCs you had to download via UPlay. I think they are completely disconnecting UPlay from those games, thus you won't be able to download the DLCs.

I'm guessing obviously. And even that explanation just doesn't make much sense to me. Why would they just remove UPlay support for these games? Why will those single-player DLCs become unavailable? Which DLCs in particular? I truly can't wrap my head around what Ubisoft means by this mess. We will either have to wait and see, or someone will pressure Ubi via social media to make some statement explaining.

1Victor1396d ago

All hail the future of all digital games.
I would like to hear the excuses from the all digital future defenders about this

Rebel_Scum1396d ago (Edited 1396d ago )

Who’s playing any of these old garbage DLC’s/online modes in 2022?

NotoriousWhiz1396d ago

This literally has zero to do with digital games and is really just an Ubisoft issue. Either way, most people will tell you that "all digital" is not the future. Digital and physical should always be options.

1Victor1396d ago

@ notorious
🤦🏿 "Ubisoft came out with the announcement that some of their classic titles are shutting down their servers. While this is not entirely surprising, the next bit is quite shocking. As Ubisoft states in regard to many of said classic games, “additionally, the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable”.

What part of that makes it zero to do with digital today is Ubisoft tomorrow can be any game that’s digital only or have DLC from any publisher but hey whatever helps you sleep, remember kid the older your favorite digital games get the closer they’re to the big shutdown 🤷🏿

DOMination-1395d ago

They are shutting down multiplayer for PS3 games that nobody is playing. If you owned a physical copy, you'd also be affected? It has nothing to do with digital.

Presumably for the DLC, you'll still have access to it if you've previously purchased it. And if you're upset that you haven't already got the DLC for ACII, then I don't know what to say.. you've had 15 years to buy it.

Of course, we'd all love for everything to always be available and despite what you may think, I'm not really defending this - but maintaining multiplayer serves for games from two generations ago that literally nobody is playing takes up resources. And energy. And right now, that is very expensive. I guess the solution should be allowing console gamers to run their own servers.

NotoriousWhiz1395d ago

Please tell me which part of this: "additionally, the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable” doesn't affect their physical games. None. It affects all of their games equally.

NotoriousWhiz1395d ago

"the older your favorite digital games get the closer they’re to the big shutdown"

Funny, because I haven't lost a single digital title yet. I guess the big shutdown only actually shut down one digital game.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 1395d ago
Wintersun6161396d ago

They're doing a Ubisoft. Because that's what Ubisoft does.

CrimsonWing691396d ago

And you want us to go all digital? This is the bull sh*t that makes me apprehensive to an all digital future. You corpo guys don’t understand game preservation or it’s importance.

Majors1396d ago

Its all about the £££££ and if they can sell you the same item multiple times over... Also physical or digital makes no difference these days sadly because if you buy physical you only get 1/2 the data needed to actually start the game nevermind play it

XxINFERNUSxX1396d ago

Just torrent for PC and smile 😁

Majors1396d ago

Companies who withdraw support should be legally made to patch games to enable the 'owner' to create and host their own MP lobbies. This is theft

Inverno1396d ago (Edited 1396d ago )

Unfortunately we've allowed corporations to hold too much power and we don't own half of what we buy. The correct thing to do when shutting down servers, or better yet include it from the beginning, is to make it possible to access what we originally bought. This won't change until they're forced to cause greedy people don't like doing the right thing unless they have some incentive.

CantThinkOfAUsername1396d ago

We don't own anything. The company makes a product and asks for a one-time fee to give you a licence to access it. You agree to the terms that they can revoke that licence at any time for any reason. This is 'digital ownership.'

Maybe people should read some of what they blindly click to agree to.

Father__Merrin1396d ago

When this happens they should give ddlc free to download

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