Legal Niches

PM Brown Lauds UK Developers

By pete_gallagher

In advance of the (now) ongoing London-based Global Investment Conference, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown (pictured) gave a shout out to UK game developers.

In a podcast (MP3 here, thanks Edge), Brown highlighted the UK as a 'great place to invest,' and then heaped praise on the UK games industry, saying, 'We're leading the way in creative industries… by far the biggest producer of videogames in Europe.'

Brown promised that the conference would not just about 'talking shop,' saying, 'there will be new commitments of investment off the back of this conference.'

UK trade organization TIGA backed Brown's comments, with TIGA CEO Richard Wilson adding, 'We warmly welcome Prime Minster Gordon Brown's comments and urge him to act quickly to introduce a Games Tax Relief as outlined by TIGA, for the UK games development industry in the coming Budget.'

Wilson continued:

TIGA has made repeated representations to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and to HM Treasury, setting out the case for Games Tax Relief. We hope that the support of the Prime Minister will ensure a commitment by the Government to the introduction of Games Tax Relief and so guarantee that the UK video games industry remains world leading.

Brown has also found himself a target of Apple Daily, a Hong Kong publication that has demonstrated a growing propensity for serving up reenacted news stories rendered in 3D computer animations. A new book by Andrew Rawnsley alleges that Brown acted the part of a bully on Downing Street, with contentions that Brown threw a slow-moving secretary out of a chair so he could finish her work himself. It was also alleged that Brown had a penchant for striking the headrest in his Jaguar when angry, which frightened aides.

Apple Daily used just these allegations for its latest immersive news piece.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on February 23, 2010 (boomark / email).