Digital Britain might be bad news for file sharers, but it has some great news for the UK games industry. The Government aims to give developers, publishers and parents a helping hand by ousting BBFC games ratings in favour of the Pan European Game Information system, or PEGI. In addition, the Digital Britain report promises to “work with the industry to collect and review the evidence for a tax relief” for game makers.
Members of the UK games industry will be especially pleased that the Digital Britain report actually remembered they exist. When the interim report was issued back in January, industry members hit out at the Government for seeming to ignore them entirely.
Furthermore, the decision to back PEGI has been met with nearly universal support from the industry side, according to trade mag MCV. “This is the right decision for the UK consumer,” said ELSPA’s Chairman Andy Payne, a sentiment echoed by Microsoft’s Neil Thompson, amongst others.
However, there may be other reasons for their jubilance, namely that PEGI is a self-regulatory system unlike the BBFC. That said, the Video Standards Council (VSC) will be given a new role in ensuring the PEGI classification system is carried by all video games in the UK. Nevertheless, there’s an obvious financial appeal in getting to use a single Europe-wide rating system instead of having to pander to the demands of the BBFC as well, whose powers can amount to full blown censorship, as demonstrated in the Manhunt 2 controversy.
Interestingly, the Digital Britain report’s stance on the rating system stands almost completely at odds with that of the Byron Report issued a little over a year ago.
Finally, Digital Britain has confirmed that the Government will “review” the possibility of granting tax incentives to help out the games industry in the UK. Despite being a profitable sector of the entertainment biz and Britain once holding an admirable position on the international gaming stage, superb tax breaks in countries such as Canada and South Korea have led many companies to move their operations abroad.
Unfortunately, nothing is set in stone, and pretty much every decision to could be chucked out if Labour loses the next General Election. But hey, it’s a start, right?
