Contact:
Mag. My Hue McGowran
Phone: +43-1-81140-308
E-Mail: mcgowran@newsfox.com
| Pressbox | 
|
London (pte030/23.05.2005/13:22) - The electronics and media giant Sony believes that it needs government funding for Britain's games developers to be able to compete with the burgeoning Asian markets. Computer game developers in countries in the Far East, including India, are providing cheaper competition for the large western company.
The company believes that it should receive the same support as the country's film industry, which gets millions of pounds annually in tax breaks.
Executive vice-president of development at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Phil Harrison, said that it is "a source of great frustration that while the video game industry is a great contributor to the UK economy, we get nothing from the Government".
"We don't mind if it's hard support, in the form of tax incentives, or soft support such as training schemes. We just want some acknowledgement, anything," Harrison said.
In Australia, for example, where governments buy development technology from games developers and make it available to studios, state funding is possible.
"It's been very successful [there]," Harrison said, "whereas the UK Government has done nothing. I can't imagine [games development in] Britain competing against China and India and other Asian markets effectively 15 years from now if it's not supported by the Government," he said.
According to the games industry trade body Elspa, Britain's spending on such development has fallen to £320 million (18 per cent) since 2000, despite a 6 per cent rise in consumer spending on games to almost £1.2 billion last year.
Production costs are rising, and the next generation of consoles are likely to cost up to £20 million, which will be a problem for smaller developers.
Sony is one of the largest developers in Europe, and employs about 5,600 in the game developers sector.
(end)
|
|
