According to trade site Develop, "one of the biggest game companies in the world" has "sabotaged" plans to provide tax breaks for UK developers. That's one juicy scandal.
The British government had pledged to provide the breaks, aimed at propping up a decline in the number of UK developers. That was until, Develop says, a "global publisher...counterbalanced the bid with a scandalous assertion of its own international influence and power". Earlier this week, plans for the tax cuts were scrapped.
This is no petty to-and-fro between publishers like we're used to in this business. This is an allegation that one of the industry's biggest players actively stepped in to take a swing at a national government's policies.
The unnamed publisher apparently believed the tax breaks would "have given the UK an unfair advantage over other nations".
Like I said, juicy stuff. Anyone care to hazard a guess who it could be? There are only a few companies that would fit the description, and it wouldn't be Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft. It's not Ubisoft, either. That leaves...EA? Activision?
Update: As reader ahill313 points out, Tiga, an industry group for games developers, and Activision were recently lobbying for tax breaks in the UK.