As part of the economic recovery measures to alleviate the effects of the coronavirus, the Government of Spain has announced an investment of 70 million euros intended to support the country's technology sector, including video games.
The administration of this investment will be the responsibility of the Ministries of Culture and Consumption. Of the aforementioned amount, 20 million will be used to promote youth employment in this industry, which will be co-financed by the European Social Fund. It is planned to start new training (both face-to-face and mixed) in order to prepare young people to work in the sector.
On the other hand, 15 million will go to improving the technological offer in digital content, while the last 35 million will be for the development of artificial intelligence and more enabling technologies. These have been the words of Alberto Garzón, Minister of Consumer Affairs, regarding aid:
The sector is one of the key industries in the economic and social reconstruction plan in response to the COVID-19 crisis, due to its innovative and creative nature, the intensive use of new technologies and the promotion of employment, and its contribution to new models of sustainable consumption and prevention of behaviors of intensive use in groups of risk, especially minors.
It is not clear what amounts will specifically go to the video game sector, although we can assume that those 15 million for the supply of digital content, as well as part of the amount destined to boost youth employment, are going down this path. In that case, this grant would set a record in Spain
They will not have the tax benefits of culture
Despite economic incentives, the video game sector stays out of tax measures to help Spanish culture. In other words, the deduction for investments that the film, series and performing arts industry will have will not be applied.
This means that, not enjoying the benefit of tax savings, access to international investors is greatly hindered
From DEV (Spanish Association of Companies Producing and Developing Video Games and Entertainment Software) explain that they have been asking for these tax deduction measures for years, but they still don't get them. In the case of cinema or animation, up to 30% is deducted thanks to this, according to the recent Royal decree law.
Based on its estimates, DEV anticipates that if the COVID-19 crisis lasts more than three months without these benefits, 240 Spanish companies will stop working of video game development, 46% of the total.
