Report: UK publishers have slowed or stopped original IP development

By Stephany Nunneley

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UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts has complied a report, which states that 60 percent of the publishers surveyed in the UK had either slowed, or stopped creation on original IP development.

The report concludes that developers would create more original IP should Parliament create tax credits, with three-quarters of 3rd party development studios admitting that a new IP hasn’t been worked on at all in the last five years.

Over 65 percent of independent studios polled agreed that a tax break would “help them to keep hold of the original IP they produce.”

“Risk aversion by publishers is making it harder for UK developers to be creative and innovative, areas where they have excelled in the past,” said the report. “Executives from publisher head offices acknowledge that this is partly a consequence of increasing risk aversion in parent companies who prefer to focus on well-established franchises over betting on unproven intellectual properties.

“This trend is particularly worrying for the UK video games sector which has traditionally relied on its creativity and capacity to innovate as a differentiation factor against cheaper development territories.”

The full report can be found over on Develop.

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