The Globe and Mail discusses changes to the tax code in the Canadian province that will encourage game development:
So two years ago, the province’s five biggest gaming companies — Digital Extremes; Silicon Knights of St. Catharines; and Pseudo Interactive, Groove Games and the Canadian development studio of Koei of Japan (all based in Toronto) — joined forces to form the Game Developers Association of Ontario to lobby Queen’s Park for a better deal.
They got it. Not only does the budget increase the tax credit, it loosens the credit’s intellectual property ownership requirements. Even though Digital Extremes invented Unreal Tournament, the game was brought to market via U.S. publishers, who owned the intellectual property. This restricted the Canadian inventor’s eligibility for tax breaks.
"Now we can get a lesser credit of 20 per cent on that kind of project, and 30 per cent where we have intellectual property ownership," Braun said. "Now, when Ontario game developers approach publishers they can in effect offer games 20 to 30 per cent more cheaply. We look forward to seeing how these tax credits will grow the video game industry in Ontario."
