According to videogame industry website GamesIndustry.biz, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has confirmed that the planned (and promised) tax relief for the videogame industry in the UK will no longer materialise.

The announcement was made during Osborne’s budget speech yesterday, and his only words on the matter were that the “planned tax relief for the videogames industry will be cancelled.”

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Previous Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling of the Labour government, promised game developers in the UK that plans for industry tax relief were included in the 2010 budget, and would most likely follow the model currently in place for motion pictures. Said Darling at the time:

“I will offer help to the computer games sector, similar to the steps which are helping restore the fortunes of the British film industry. This is a highly successful and growing industry, with half its sales coming from exports, and we need to keep British talent in this country.”

With the change in leadership in the UK, however, this promise apparently no longer applies.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz