News - Activision warns it might quit UK over tax 'mistake'

[HEXUS]

Gaming giant's possible move could cost 600 jobs.

Read more.

[kopite]

Cutting the tax reliefs isnt a great idea but it shows just how greedy Activision are that they are willing to pull out just because they have to pay a little bit more up front.

To me they have become worse than EA ever where to the point where EA even seems likeable as a company now.

[cheesemp]

Cutting the tax reliefs isnt a great idea but it shows just how greedy Activision are that they are willing to pull out just because they have to pay a little bit more up front.

To me they have become worse than EA ever where to the point where EA even seems likeable as a company now.

100% percent agree. Kotik is even more arrogant than Balmer now after his gutting of infinity ward.

[Rob_B]

What is the actual size of the cuts though? I agree that the government has to cut something, where does the line stop though? Is this 'just' hitting 3500 jobs? IT in general is getting cut in the UK so unfortunately this is no great suprise or even shocking number of jobs. The problem is thinking that companies have any sort of loyalty to anyone except shareholders, they don't & never will.

[kalniel]

WTO should just ban tax relief on games development if the company doesn't need it. It's a tool of bribery that usually only creates something at another country's expense, leading to reduced tax returns all round in the end.

[watercooled]

I agree that Activision are very greedy - don't forget they charge a fiver more than anyone else I can think of for a game which is basically a map pack to previous games. And it's one of the best selling games so it's not like they're desperate for the money.

[MaddAussie]

Agree with everyone else on this, Activision = plain greedy

[oolon]

Why should the games industry get a tax break when say the steel industry does not. If there were a tax break it should just be for small start up style games companies, people taking a risk not for all consuming giants. The only reason why EA employs anyone here is it has bought smaller houses if it goes away, some might move to other counties however it might just mean that the people set up a new company an do something different for a change. I see no reason to bankroll EA's profits but lots of reasons to support small companies (which is what the tax break was orginally for).

[TheAnimus]

wait what?

they are complainging over tax breaks which I thought were never introduced?

Surely the best way to attract and keep the games industry would be to have a large skill base?

[oolon]

Surely the best way to attract and keep the games industry would be to have a large skill base?

But EA are games leeches rather than innovators, they do not produce new things they buy companies with successful names then run the franchise into the ground with rehashes of the same thing over and over again.

[kopite]

But EA are games leeches rather than innovators, they do not produce new things they buy companies with successful names then run the franchise into the ground with rehashes of the same thing over and over again.

The article is talking about Activision though.

I mentioned EA as they seem like saints next to the way Activision do business nowadays.

[TheVoice]

Tax breaks for a company raking in millions from copy & paste Call of Duty games? They're the last people who need or deserve it.

[Saracen]

Headline .... "Corporate muscle-company wants special interest tax breaks shock - tries to blackmail government".

What's shocking is not that they want it, it's that all too often, special interest groups lobby effectively enough to get it.

Large games companies might also want to consider the plight of some manufacturers that have found serious IP breaches by workers in very poor countries (the workers being poor, I mean, not the country) where, for instance, the stories would have us believe that premiere watches, fashion items, etc go out the front door, as legit products, during the day, and out the back door as "replicas" at night.

Tax incentives need to be implemented when they are needed for the UK economy and only then, and not when they're needed to protected large company's bottom lines. Do Activision qualify on those grounds I don't know, but I rather doubt it.

[nichomach]

I agree with you on the point that tax breaks should only exist where necessary Saracen, but in much the same way as (I suspect) we might agree on nuclear disarmament - it's a really good idea as long as everyone does it...but regrettably that doesn't appear likely any time soon.

[Saracen]

I agree with you on the point that tax breaks should only exist where necessary Saracen, but in much the same way as (I suspect) we might agree on nuclear disarmament - it's a really good idea as long as everyone does it...but regrettably that doesn't appear likely any time soon.

You mean everyone internationally? If so, ideally yes .... and I mean tax breaks, not nukes.

But .... it still comes down to only doing it if it's in our best interests to do it, and that's a complex question.

It's a bit like paying off blackmailers or kidnappers - it might help in the short term but it also encourages kidnappers and blackmailers. So, if you bribe one special interest group to stay here, you'll end up bribing all of them, and all that tax revenue that they don't pay because of the tax breaks, well, we get to pay it instead.

There comes a point where you have to tell the blackmailer to go to hell.

[crossy]

I agree with you on the point that tax breaks should only exist where necessary Saracen, but in much the same way as (I suspect) we might agree on nuclear disarmament - it's a really good idea as long as everyone does it...but regrettably that doesn't appear likely any time soon.

Hmm, I seem to remember that there were games companies based in Dundee and Edinburgh that were lobbying for it. Certainly I remember Rockstar saying that having the tax break could "facilitate" them being able to take on more UK-based folks.

And yes, I'm sure we'd all like to see the big US-based conglomerations get sod all. So I'm sure that there's a way to ensure that they got their breaks only on the UK-based part of their production line.

Last time I looked, Canada, France and North Carolina all offered these breaks, so it's not as if it's a new idea. How about VAT refund on equipment for the UK development teams - should be relatively easy/cheap to implement?

Can't help thinking that if this'd been bankers wanting these then they would have come to pass - but then again I'm narrow-minded enough to think that one way or another the banking industry has had far too much of the public money already for doing very little of value.