Decision Could Create 4500 Jobs, £283 Million Extra GDP

It's been a long time coming, but tax breaks for UK-based game developers has been officially announced by Chancellor George Osborne as part of this year's budget. These tax credits will "support our brilliant video games and animations industries," and more importantly, stop British studios relocating to more financially attractive areas such as Canada and Korea.

As you'd expect, our homegrown developers are welcoming the decision across the board. We've got their reactions and more details after the break.

SEGA has praised its UK-based studios for being the foundation of their games lineup - and are as important to their success as the lurching Sonic franchise. Creative Assembly and Sports Interactive have recently brought us Total War: Shogun 2 and Football Manager 2011; demonstrating that our proud British developers are more than capable of producing world class game experiences. It's great to see UK studios get the credit they deserve after the recent doom and gloom surrounding Bizarre Creations and Realtime Worlds, and we have the full story after the jump.

It's Official: We're a Nation of Gamers!

Have you ever felt that your gaming hobby somehow ostracized you or set you apart from the majority? You couldn't be more wrong...or in better company. According to a new ELSPA survey, 32% of the British population are gamers. What's more, a staggering 74% of 16-19 year olds and 60% of 20-24 year olds identified themselves as gamers.

To put this in perspective, this means that there are over 19 and a half million gamers in Britain... which is almost three times the population of London.This number will only increase through the next decade considering the enormous youth fraction; frankly, in 10-20 years, games could well be as ubiquitous as television (thus rendering the term 'gamer' completely defunct!).

This enormous percentage, especially in the 16-24 age group, is partly due to the rise of the mobile and casual market; as well as improved publicity, advertising quality of games these days. Mike Rawlinson, Director of ELSPA, also cites the popularity of motion controls as a contributing factor.

"In the last few years the development of motion sensor technology saw gaming become more accessible to new audiences who didn’t previously connect with the industry.With the growth of gaming platforms such as social networking sites and the iPhone, we are witnessing once again the growth of gaming into new areas of society, truly showing that the UK is a nation of gamers."

Damn right. I'm proud to live in a gaming nation- and so should you. [Gamesindustry]

Playstation+ Launches Today. Recap Time!

Sony's premium PSN service launches today as part of Firmware Update 3.40. In case you're still confused by what Playstation+ brings to the table, here's a little recap.

£39.99 will net you one year of membership (as well as 3 extra months if you sign up for the full year immediately). New games and content will become active every month- though it'll deactivate if your subscription lapses. The first month will grant you access to Wipeout HD, several Minis (including Fieldrunners and Age of Zombies), PSOne Classic Rally Cross, Qore epsidoes, and a Full Game Trial of inFamous (giving time-limited access to the full version of inFamous).

Update 3.40 also includes PSN Rating support (allowing you to rate games out of 5 stars), a sharable photo gallery and a video editor.

Out of interest, are you guys thinking of subscribing to Playstation+? Got any advice for would-be subscribers? Drop us a line in the comments!

Microsoft: Project Milo is Not A Game

Oh, Milo. Peter Molyneux's controversial child simulator has been feeding Kinect skeptics and Sony fanboys for some time now- but apparently Milo and Kate won't be a game in their own right. According to Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, Milo is simply a tech demo that won't go to market in its own right.

"Last year we unveiled the Project Natal technology, we showed a bunch of technology demos as part of that. And obviously [Milo] is a technology demo that continues to exist, but right now it's not a game that we're planning to bring to market."

Fair enough. It's probably for the best, really- and it's certainly what we've previously suspected. I can't even begin to imagine how interacting with Milo could be anything resembling fun. Impressive and creepy, maybe... but not fun. [Kotaku AU]

However, Molyneux's set to show off Milo and Kate at the TED Global Seminar on July 13th- and possibly the mysterious title that their software will factor into. Naturally, we'll keep you posted.

British Inspiration Awards Finalists Announced

A new awards scheme has been launched to honour the contribution of Britain's creative talent to the country's economy, and three British developers have been nominated for in the Interactive Media category.

Ian Livingstone is the Life-President of Eidos Interactive, and has received a BAFTA award for "Outstanding Contribution to the [Gaming] Community."

Sam Houser is the co-founder and president of Rockstar Games, the influential British developer behind the GTA series.

Richard Darling is one of the co-founders of Codemasters, and has received a CBE for his services to the country.

The executive committee is chaired by Ninty UK Managing Director David Yarnton, who has explained the importance of the event in recognising the nation's creative talent.

"The quality of our nation's artistic deeds are expressed profoundly through this list of finalists. We're privileged to be in a position to honour such consistent standard bearers for the great British creative sector."

The award ceremony will be held in London on April 23rd, and the entirety of the proceeds will be distributed to UK charities. Which of the three would get your vote? [Gamesindustry.biz]

Crytek: Free Demos are Outdated

Crytek co-founder Cervat Yerli has called free game demos a "luxury" that have become "prohibitively expensive" to produce. This falls in line with EA's plans to release substantial paid demos, and he describes the EA move as "[getting] investment back but while being as fair to the gamer as much as it can. Ultimately, it will be a better deal for the gamer." Apparently, Crytek predict that this is the twilight of the free demo and most major companies will start to charge in the near future.

Personally I find the idea of paying for demos to be distasteful to the point of being completely abhorrent. Crytek and EA would have to sweeten the pot by providing a huge amount of content; possibly in-game content (e.g. multiplayer skins etc) that can't be obtained any other way. If there is to be a Crysis 2 demo, Yerli promises that it will be "something more than a small demo released for free."

Will you stand for this? Let us know what you think in the comments!

New PS Move Brawler named The Fight: Lights Out

The Playstation Move videos prominently featured a Punch Out-style brawler that receives 1:1 movement input from the motion controller. Sony has now officially announced that this fighting title has been named The Fight: Lights Out- and that it will offer a solid framerate of 60FPS. This very impressive- especially considering that it will have to update character movement at this speed.

Whilst the new reveal video only exhibits an alpha build, the mechanics already seem fairly solid. A wide range of clean boxing moves and dirty brawling techniques are on offer- and it promises to deliver a far more gritty and realistic experience than its predecessors. We'll bring you more on this game as we learn more. [US Playstation Blog]