North Carolina ponders tax incentive for game developers

Not all gaming legislation is directed at curbing violent games. Take North Carolina Democratic house representative Pryor Gibson's HB2157, recently brought to light by Game Politics.

Introduced a couple weeks ago, Gibson's bill looks to give game developers a 15 percent tax credit for money spent in-state on equipment and labor costs. To qualify, the companies need to be making products distributed on electronic media that "contains a computer-controlled universe with which users may interact in order to achieve a goal," and also has to have a substantial amount of three of the five following data types: text, sound, fixed images, animated images, and 3D geometry.

One catch in the bill is that companies cannot claim tax credits on the costs of making games that would fall under the state's existing obscenity statutes. Developers would also have to keep itemized records that would keep track of their expenses, and the credit would only apply on tax years before 2011.

Since its introduction, the only activity surrounding the bill has seen it referred to the House Finance Committee, of which Gibson is a chairman. No other representatives have cosponsored the bill.

North Carolina does play host to a number of notable developers' operations, including Epic Games (Unreal Tournament 2007, Gears of War), Red Storm Entertainment (Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon), Funcom (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures), and Merscom (Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006, WWII Tank Commander).