Georgia Wants You to Build Video Games

Georgia recently passed the 2008 Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act, designed to attract film, music, and (most importantly to us) gaming firms to the state in an effort to boost revenue. The Act offers a 20 percent flat-tax credit to any production company that spends more than $500,000 on a year's worth of production and post-production. The credit is specifically aimed at animation, interactive content and video game development.

In 2005, Georgia passed a similar act, which led to over a billion dollars in economic impact between 2005 and 2007. Numbers have been slower this year, however, because other states caught on and started offering competetive development incentives as well, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

These kinds of incentives offer further proof that the gaming industry is holding its own against big media players like the music and film industries (GTA IV's effect on Iron Man's box-office performance being the most recent battle between the two industries.)

But why wouldn't a state want to bring in game developers? It's a clean industry that's growing larger everyday. Georgia is smart to lure up-start companies to their state and offer an East Coast alternative to California that isn't New York City. We are a bit concerned about what it will do the the quality of games being released -- next up, Wii Cow Milking.