UK Losing Gaming IT Pros to USA, Canada

While the UK maintains its position as housing some of the most well-known gaming companies in the world, their IT departments are still suffering. While there are dozens of advertisements for gaming companies that are targeting persons in the UK, only about 20 percent of those positions are actually in the UK, with another 25 percent somewhere in mainland Europe. The remaining percentage, more than half, are for companies that can be found in the US or in Canada.

UK and European companies are looking to fight this attempt at losing some of their best programmers and IT professionals in several different ways. The most lucrative seems to be the tax breaks that the UK government is now offering. There is somewhat of a “cultural test” that has been developed, which looks at criteria and awards points. Some of the different areas that are looked at are if there are characters from the UK, if the game is set in the UK, where the production team is based, and where the gaming company is registered. If they have earned enough “points”, developers can claim upwards of 25% for a tax break, just by supporting their country.