Ireland woos industry with new games incentive packages
Ireland’s prime minister Enda Kenny has today announced plans to attract more games development to the country using flexible incentive packages.
Games Ireland, a newly formed trade body representing the industry in Ireland, supports the move, which it hopes will change the culture of games development in the country.
“All the biggest brands in the world are almost here now,” Games Ireland’s communications director Paul Hayes told GamesIndustry.biz. “We just need to change the narrative and the types of projects they’re doing. A lot of them are here in a support function.”
A government report published yesterday by Forfás outlined the areas that the government is willing to look at in terms of the incentives, which include tax based incentives, and R&D and project grants.
Hayes explained that these packages would be fluid, and dependent on the needs of each company.
“The industry is evolving so fast that we kind of have to stay flexible in terms of the package of incentives that might work, and almost individually tailor them,” he said.
“We’ll take the best that we can from the Korean or the French or the Canadian experience, and just try and add what we can. I think as a country we’ve been pretty good at that and this is the first time that we’ve really focussed on games with a bit of a laser beam.”
Games Ireland already counts Activision, BigFish, Popcap, Havok and Demonware among its members.
The full article can be read here.
Details on the Forfas report here.
The IGAI website can be found here.
Which video game titles top gamers’ wish lists this year?
Nielsen’s Top 20 Games to Watch reveals the most anticipated games of the 2011 holiday season, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 the most coveted among active U.S. gamers. The list was developed by examining a variety of consumer measures from Nielsen’s Video Game Tracking survey, including the top five titles active gamers are considering for purchase.
Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, an expected juggernaut for this holiday season, is desired by more than one quarter (27%) of active gamers.
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