Scotland’s development community backed trade association TIGA’s demand for government tax relief during a forum held at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

Industry figures including Colin Macdonald of Realtime Worlds and Denki MD Colin Anderson told attendees of the Scotland In Focus event that although the industry is in a reasonably healthy state in the country, competition from tax-assisted nations such as France and Canada threatens to deliver a knockout blow to the Scottish development sector unless it receives government assistance.

With Dundee West MSP Joe Fitzpatrick hosting the event and the SNP’s minister for culture Mike Russell putting in a brief appearance, there were also calls for better promotion of the games sector as one of the country’s key industries and for more effective investment in education to safeguard the industry’s future. With powers to implement new tax legislation still reserved by the UK government in Westminster, the industry hopes the Scottish government can show its support through means such as intervention funding and promotion.

There are also realistic hopes that once new public arts body Creative Scotland begins operating next year it will include videogames within its remit. As the new blanket organisation for developing and publicising arts within Scotland, there is a strong possibility that Creative Scotland could open up entirely new support streams for an industry that has tended to, as Macdonald put it, “fall through the cracks” of government policy both in Westminster and Holyrood. Initial dialogue has been positive, with Macdonald telling us that Creative Scotland has been “fairly open and receptive” to the issues facing Scottish developers.


_{Colin Macdonald, studio manager at Realtime Worlds}

While Scotland is home to an industry that employs over 700 people and has an estimated annual turnover of approximately £20m, the country has never developed its own publishing infrastructure, meaning that many developers have had no choice but to become what Anderson calls ‘workhouses’, expending their energies on existing IPs and outsourced projects for foreign publishers simply to stay afloat. Anderson used his position on the Scotland in Focus panel to reiterate the necessity of some form of tax relief if Scottish developers are to escape this model and take full advantage of the talent working in the country.

“Scotland has suffered from never establishing a publisher,” he told attendees. “Now that digital distribution has removed this barrier we can genuinely capitalise on original gaming opportunities for the first time. However, the primary source of income for developers over the last ten years has been working for hire, and it’s very difficult to switch from this to creating original IPs. This is where tax credits could really make an impact, by lessening the risk developers are taking when they come off the life support.”

“It’s not that we’re saying we desperately require government money just to keep going; it’s that we want the government to recognise this as a worthwhile investment for the country. The government should recognise that the money they could spend in helping us attract new talent and new investment is actually an investment in the country’s future.”

With the likes of Lemmings and the first Grand Theft Auto games on his resume, Anderson remembers a time when Scottish studios created “not just games, but genres,” and he firmly believes that if the cycle of working on commission could be replaced by investment within the sector it would allow Scottish games firms to compete on equal terms globally.


_{Denki MD Colin Anderson}