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Activision Threatening to Cut 600 UK Jobs

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:21 am
by Kaito-kun
Linky

For those of you who can't be bother clicking on the link or have an odd fear of blue underlined words here's a summary: Kotick's annoyed that the industry isn't getting any tax breaks in the UK. There's no increase. Just no decrease. As a result the company is considering moving operations elsewhere where tax breaks are being offered. You know, just to avoid paying the same amount of money they have been already.


Well, I suppose they are a bit strapped for cash over at Activision HQ. It's not like they've had the biggest selling games for at least the past two years now or the ludicrous idea that one of their recent titles made them over $1,000,000,000 in sales in just under two months. That would be madness.

Your thoughts?

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:37 am
by Reknoc
I didn't realise they even had any UK devs left after killing off Bizarre.

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 2:31 am
by Tru
This probably won't convince the government to reconsider tax breaks, but it's a bit of a kick in the teeth.

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 2:38 am
by Gonic
Jobs being cut again? No surprise there. But I agree with cloudchaser

Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 4:14 pm
by Rayne
Reknoc wrote:I didn't realise they even had any UK devs left after killing off Bizarre.
Haha, this.

And I'd hardly blame Activision for it either. As much as I loathe them, it's a perfectly normal business decision.

I severely doubt kotic just raised his hand in a board meeting and yelped that he hates the UK either. As the accountants run Activision they no doubt delivered a report with forecasted savings, those savings are probably pretty substanstial.

It's the Government's fault, video gaming is a huge sector that's going untapped, there's millions of kids here blindy jumping into an industry that doesn't really exist. A tax break would be a smart move.

Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 4:21 pm
by IvyRave
I'm not suprised at all ether, stupid goverment

Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 9:09 pm
by Kaito-kun
I'm more annoyed at the attitude of "Oh we were fine paying it until you decided not to lower it" than anything else.