Today, CGDA signed a contract with Olsberg SPI consultancy with the aim of creating a design and a detailed analysis of the effect of the “cash rebate” program in the video game sector, modeled after the British Video Games Expenditure Credit (formerly known as Video Games Tax Relief, i.e. VGTR). In Croatia, the precedent is the existing audiovisual cash rebate program Filming in Croatia, which returns up to 30% of invested funds to domestic and foreign productions.
The Ministry of Culture and the Croatian Audiovisual Center have already shown interest in implementing such a program for video games, so once the analysis is done (by July 2024), we will begin implementation in cooperation with the relevant bodies in the future Government of the Republic of Croatia.
For Croatian studios, this would mean that once a video game is produced, the government automatically returns a certain percentage of funds to the studio. This can help studios finance the next video game, or it can help them as an instrument to strengthen the competitiveness in negotiations with international publishers and investors. Currently, such schemes in the EU are available in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovakia and Switzerland, and the full list can be found here.
The analysis was financed by the ten largest domestic companies involved in the production of video games (Nanobit, Gamepires, Pine studio, Croteam, Fury Studios, Protopixel, Intercorona, Ironward, Room-C Games, Gamechuck), and the rest of the necessary funds will be covered by CGDA from its own budget .
Below is a description of the sketch of the proposed program presented by Hrvoje Mitić and unanimously voted as a strategic priority at the CGDA Assembly this summer.
