BC has announced that it’s creating a new 17.5% tax credit for costs primarily undertaken towards development of interactive entertainment products.

This industry is huge in BC, but the appreciation of our dollar against other currencies (primarily the USD) is hurting new investment by the largest players: Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Disney. Why produce here when their American staff are just as inexpensive now?

The new credit will force devs to choose between taking it and taking provincial SR&ED credits on the same expenses — which they will, because the new credit is included at 17.5% while shreds come in at a paltry 10% (federal shreds are unaffected).

In normal-person-talk, this means that videogame development is going to get 7.5% cheaper in the new budget, including for small developers like SIN.