Developerfront – Texte für Spieleentwickler in Deutsch und English

Electronic services (=games), are in general, taxed at the place where the customer is established or resides. Where the supplier is established within the EU and the customer is a non-taxable person (= the gamers), the supply is, however, currently taxed at the place where the supplier (=game developers/distribution platform holders) is established. From 1 January 2015, all telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services will be taxable at the place where the customer belongs (unless the rule on effective use and enjoyment applies), even if the customer is a non-taxable person. Thus for non-taxable persons, EU and non-EU suppliers will need to identify:

• where the customer is established,

• has his permanent address

• or usually resides.

Without a VAT identification number (which is usually reserved for taxable persons) for guidance, the supplier  will have to rely to some extent on information from the customer. To ensure legal certainty, and avoid double taxation or non-taxation, suppliers need clear and binding rules on how to do this.

All aid schemes have to follow all relevant provisions of the Treaty of Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), not just ones related directly to the state aid. On the other hand, this means that principles prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of nationality, freedom of establishment, free movement of goods and freedom to provide services have to be respected. On the other hand, state aid regulation defines specific forms of discrimination that are accepted (e.g. territorial requirements). In order to be non-discriminatory, it is particularly important that a state aid scheme (major exceptions are introduced later in this report):

• is not directed to national exclusively or require beneficiaries to have the status of national undertaking established under national commercial law. All establishments of European undertakings that operate in

Finland by means of a permanent branch or agency, irrespective of their legal structure, should be eligible for the aid. Furthermore, the agency requirement should only be enforceable upon payment of the aid.

• does not impose discrimination based on the nationality of the personnel employed or the location of the eligible expenditure in side the Union.

• do not require workers of foreign companies providing filming services to comply with national labour standards.

A general framework for aids granted by Member States is set in the article 107 of TFEU. According to it, aid to promote culture and heritage conservation, where such aid does not affect trading conditions and competition in the Union to an extent that is contrary to the common interest, may be considered compatible with the internal market. In addition to the general framework, some audiovisual sectors have their own legal guidelines. As there has been only one case focusing on the state aid for video games, so far the European Union has not created specific recommendations for state aid directed to them. Public service broadcasting has its recommendations in the so-called Broadcasting Communication.

Subject: Future Networks Research and Innovation in Horizon2020

Executive summary

European Games Developer Federation (EGDF) represents about 600 game developer

studios from 12 European countries. EGDF can actively bridge the gap between new,

innovative, creative and content driven ventures and the existing European research

community.

As a part of the first truly integrated digital ecosystem of the entertainment sector,

games markets that are around $100 billion globally, these companies are placed ideally

to be the focal point of the coming Transmedia Era. Consequently, these companies are

cultural, economic and innovation drivers in the digital markets. And there is a huge need

for cross sector synergies uniting technological innovation with cultural creation and

economic development in the area of content and media businesses.

Europe is falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to the state of its network

infrastructure. Therefore the introduction of higher bandwidth should be one of the main

research focuses. However not only the network drives the content, it happens both

ways: the content also drives the requirements of the network. A digital Europe needs to

be a strong, content driven, Europe.

Game developers are more and more considering self-publishing, and thus starting to

distribute their own content. As the distribution of computer games has now shifted from

boxes to online new distribution modes emerge. In the context of the “internet of the

future” network and social network based games and game-like applications should be

regarded as leading indicators of future requirements on the cloud based distribution

structure.

The aim of the games industry is to perform rich, interactive 3D content in platforms that

are integrated with people’s everyday computer usage through multiplatform delivery.

Thus it is crucial that networks are able to switch between streaming mobile content and

fiber based online content. This is the only way to enable the full potential of

multiplatform delivery of digital content.

The mobile units, smart-phones, handhelds, and related embodiments of ICT technology

are likely to be the next-generation personal computers. Especially the area of human

machine interface is an area of high strategic importance, and the world’s leading mobile

unit developers and the world’s leading developers of interactive content should be very

strongly encouraged to join forces. As the example of location based games

demonstrates, the research questions associated with this no more are connected only

with the interface of the hardware but with the whole network.

As the innovation in digital markets is more and more user driven, it is vital that research

projects will be more user-oriented. This means that in addition the needs of the

companies trying to exploit the research results also the needs of the end-consumers

have to be taken to account. It is also important that research itself is adapting more

user driven models in order to maximize its impact.

The Finnish Tekes has actively broadened the definition of innovation from purely

technological innovation related to content, services and business models. Games

industry is one of the most potential constituencies maximizing the impact of the

research based on the broad definition of innovation.

As in the Digital Era innovation happens in small entities instead of large corporations.

Therefore it is crucial that public support is directed to many small projects with about

four consortium partners (two at the minimum and five at the maximum) and a clear a

SME-quota for EU RTD projects so that at least 50% of the funding goes to SMEs is set.