Activision Blizzard Could “Quit” UK Over Tax Relief Reversal

Posted January 6, 2011 by Simon Williams in Industry News, News.

The makers of arguably the two biggest franchises in video gaming – Call of Duty and World of Warcraft – could leave the United Kingdom due to the Coalition Government’s reversal on tax relief for the video game industry, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, scrapped plans for the tax relief, introduced by his Labour predecessor, Alistair Darling, in the Government’s emergency budget in June. The move was greeted with dismay in the UK games industry, and was in spite of pre-election promises from both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties to support the proposals.

Now Activision’s Chief Executive Bobby Kotick has weighed in on the subject, going so far as to describe it as “a terrible mistake”. He highlighted the tax breaks U.S. states, as well as countries such as China and Singapore, are offering, and concluded:”There are so many other places that are encouraging the video games industry”.

For such an industry giant as Activision Blizzard, who currently employ over 600 people at their office in Slough, Berkshire, to pull out of the UK would be a terrible blow for the British games industry as a whole, as well as bad publicity for a government determined to portray itself as the best friend of business.

Richard Wilson, the Chief Executive of TIGA, the UK industry body, had this to say:

For too long, the Coalition government has acted like a one-club golfer. It has had a strategy for reducing the deficit but little to say about growth. The video game sector offers opportunities for growth and high value, high technology job creation for the UK.

There is a fear that declining investment in the UK games industry – it has fallen by 9% from £458 million to £417 million in the last two years, according to TIGA – will see a mass exodus abroad of the best in British game design talent.

Tagged as Activision Blizzard, House of Commons, Tax Relief, TIGA, UK government