EC approves French game tax credits

The French development community will share one of the major benefits of the Canadian system from today, thanks to a European Commission ruling on tax breaks. The Commission ruled in favour of a system where developers can receive up to 20 percent off their production costs.

The tax credit will be granted only to certain games which are seen to "meet the criteria of quality, originality, and contributing to cultural diversity." The approval from the EC comes after the French authorities were asked to "redefine and clarify the selection procedure" for which games would qualify and which would not.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes commented, "The French authorities have made significant changes to the scheme so as to essentially target video games with cultural content and minimise possible distortions of competition in the European market."

Developer trade body Tiga welcomed the decision. Fred Hasson, Tiga CEO, commented, "Tiga notes that the UK government did not rule out applying for the same support systems to the UK at the recent public debates with Ministers, and invites UK-based publishers to support us in levelling the playing field for UK development groups in the face of losing work and staff to Canada and other territories due to state aids."