British Developers Get Tax Breaks For Including British Characters in Their Games

Say you’re a game developer in the UK. You’re working on a new game about, I don’t know, aliens planning a casino heist. You’re thinking about setting it in Las Vegas, or maybe Dubai. But wait… wouldn’t it be cool if you set the game in jolly ol’ England? It would be! And best of all, the British government would give you tax breaks if you did.

As spotted by Develop Online, the UK government has laid out the tax breaks that it offers to video game developers for scoring well on a “cultural test” about their game.

Developers get points if the game is set in the UK, points if lead characters are British, and points for recording the game’s original dialogue in British (aka English). Best, you’ll get up to four points for “the contribution of the video game to the promotion, development and enhancement of British culture.” Guessing ZombiU doesn’t qualify for that one, but you never know.

You can read the full contents of the cultural test at Develop Online

Revealed: The UK video games cultural test [Develop Online]