Kotaku: eu

Europe Now A Bigger Gaming Market Than The US

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:30:00 MDT

Europe, take a bow. That Nielsen report from the other day, the one which gave us all kinds of neat statistics on European gamers, also gives us one piece of information that's much more important: the fact that Europe has overtaken the US in terms of market size. And not even all of Europe, just the European Union, since Nielsen's poll only included countries from the continental body. Turns out that in 2007, gaming pulled in $11.4 billion in the EU, compared to "only" $10.7 billion in the US. That figure puts the EU second only to Asia in terms of size, where $11.5 billion in gaming revenue was generated during 2007. The figure's probably skewed by the fact there are nearly 500,000,000 people in the EU, who in US dollar terms are paying almost double what Americans are, but hey, we're here for numbers, not nitpicking.

EU is second largest videogaming territory [GI.biz]

EU Approves France's Game Tax Credit

Mike Fahey — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 08:20:15 MST

Way back in February of this year the French Parliament approved a plan to allow companies creating video games with a "cultural dimension" a 20% tax credit on development costs, a credit long enjoyed by the film industry in that country. Now the European Commission has approved the plan for a period of four years for games that meet the "criteria of quality, originality and contribute to cultural diversity." While the plan had initially excluded subcontracting costs, France has accepted the commission's request to include such costs as a way of making sure the rest of the European Union can benefit from the new policy. The EU will more than likely be closely monitoring what games benefit from the credit. EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes is watching.

"We must be sure that the measure will promote only genuine cultural projects and that it will not have the effect of an industrial policy instrument in favour of the videogames sector."

EU approves tax breaks for games [GamesIndustry.biz]

EU Attempting Stricter Rules on Sale of Violent Games

Kim Phu — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:20:00 MDT

European Union justice ministers are in talks today to discuss a standardized way of regulating the sale of "killer games" (they're like bees, you see) to children. The hope is to introduce a list of penalties against retailers in selling violent videogames to minors. However, it is up to each country of the Union to decide what is too violent for their own country:

The industry currently operates a self-regulated ratings system for video and computer games. However, retailers in most EU countries are not legally obliged to restrict the sale of adult-classified products. The bloc's 27 member states also differ widely on how they judge unacceptable material.

Germany is thought to be one of the countries that takes advantage of the new penalties, putting the initiative high on their list after a shooting incident concerning an 18 year-old gamer and 11 students at his school. Kim Phu

EU Ministers Discuss Stricter Rules on Sale of 'Killer Games' [Earth Times]

UK Court of Appeals Says PS2 Is Not A Computer

brownlee — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 11:40:57 MDT

Uh oh! This story might mark the end of Ken Kutaragi's wacky "The PS3 is a computer!" quotes. Because the UK Court of Appeal, in a fantastic legal fatality, has stomped down hard on Sony's flailing spine, denying that the PS2 qualifies as a home computer.

As we've mentioned before, the reason Sony is claiming the PS3 is a computer is because they want to avoid an expensive EU import levy. This is also the reason they released Linux for the PS2. But the UK courts saw through Sony's case for the transparent, largely semantic ploy it was.

Dismissing Sony's entire argument as a joke, Lord Justicee Chadwick said Sony's "skeleton argument" went "beyond what can be regarded as acceptable written advocacy." He continued:

I am not protesting about [the Sony appeal's] inordinate length, nor about its discursive quality, nor about its frequent and unnecessary resort to hyperbole, although all those unappealing features are present...
My concern is with the repeated aspersions that are cast in that document on the intellectual honesty of the High Court Judge from whose decision this appeal is brought.

Burned, Sony! BURNED. The UK Court of Appeals also denied Sony the right to bring the case to the European Court of Justice.

Court Opinion Here