Tax breaks for Scotland’s computer games industry have been called for by a Holyrood minister.

Fiona Hyslop, Scotlands new minister for culture is calling for tax breaks for the countries games industry.

At the same time as the request, two boosts of funding for were announced for the sector, around Dundee, and the Scotish Government are poised to hand over £1million in funds from the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) to 20 startup games development companies and also to help a further 30, existing companies.

There is also a three and a half million figure that will be split between Dundee and Manchester, seeing the money going to centres of excellence in both cities

The minister (Hyslop) gave news of the the EU fund whilst on a visit to Aberttay University, where she cautioned that one of the larges issues that the Scottish gaming industry faced was the risk of other countries trying to pull developers away from Scotland..

“They see the huge benefits of having companies like these based in their countries and are creating attractive environments to encourage them to relocate, particularly in offering tax incentives,”

Ms. Hyslop stated that although the Government in Scotland is doing all it can to help the game industry inself, there could be more assistance via fiscal powers.

“The industry is telling us what it needs. This Government is listening and we will continue to make the case to the UK Government until it recognises this problem and takes action that will benefit the industry and benefit Scotland.”

It does seem quite clear that the Scottish Government are taking pro active steps to try to secure the future of the game development industries in its county, but will this be enough?

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Written by: Michael, who runs a website about Link Building Services